Informal fallacy

An informal fallacy (also presumption fallacy, soundness fallacy) is an argument that is formally valid but is unsound because of the lack of truth of one or more of its premises. Informal fallacies are characterised by the fact that although there is a connection between their premises and their conclusion - ie. they have a valid form - their premises are unsupported. All informal fallacies are forms of question-begging. These tend to be more misunderstood and slightly more numerous than formal fallacies.

Cogito ergo sum
Logic and rhetoric
Key articles
General logic
Bad logic
v - t - e

A few examples of informal fallacies are:

An Example
P1: Half of all adult humans can grow beards.
P2: Sophia is an adult human female.
C: There is a 50% chance Sophia can grow a beard.

This is not a sound argument because the first premise is irrelevant - an irrelevance which means it is not a valid argument, either: the truth of its premises do not guarantee the truth of its conclusion. As such, it is a formal fallacy.

P1: The above argument is valid but unsound
P2: Arguments that are valid but unsound constitute an informal fallacy
C: The above argument constitutes an informal fallacy

This is not a sound argument because the first premise is not true - however, if it were true, the argument would be sound. As such, it is an informal fallacy.

Dixiecrat Fallacy
See the main article on this topic: States' Rights Democratic Party

You know, it's really the Democrats who are racist. Want to know why? They're the party who started the KKK!

Usage of the Dixiecrat Fallacy and its Lost Irony

"Next time one of those stupid liberals tells you you’re a racist, you tell him it was the dirty, filthy, stinkin’ ni***r-lovin' democRats what started the KKK. You tell 'em that and it'll blow their minds because they'll realize it's the ni***rs that are the real racists."

Other informal fallacies
gollark: Don't know.
gollark: I think so.
gollark: I think it's like a TCP socket multiplexed over the QUIC connection.
gollark: I have compiled nginx. None are safe.
gollark: According to my apiomemetic analysis, it will not be practical to support QUIC on osmarks.net.

See also
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