- Today's Word
Fallacy
FAL-uh-see
Definition
(noun) A mistaken belief or flawed line of reasoning that appears convincing but leads to an incorrect conclusion.
Example
The claim that because something is natural it must be safe is a well-known fallacy.
Word Origin
From Latin fallacia, meaning “deceit, trick, artifice,” derived from fallax (“deceitful”), from fallere (“to deceive, to trip up”). The same root gives us “fail,” “false,” “fault,” and “infallible.” A fallacy, at its etymological core, is something that trips you up — a deceptive stumble built into the reasoning itself.
Fun Fact
Aristotle catalogued the first formal list of fallacies in Sophistical Refutations around 350 BCE, identifying 13 types of faulty argument. Today, logicians have catalogued over 100 recognized fallacies — from the ad hominem (attacking the person rather than the argument) to the slippery slope to the Texas sharpshooter (cherry-picking data to support a predetermined conclusion). In an era of social media and rapid-fire debate, being able to name and identify a fallacy on the spot is considered one of the most practically useful intellectual tools a person can develop.