fallacie

Fallacie is a term encountered in discussions of rhetoric and logic used to designate a broad class of argumentative errors that degrade the quality of reasoning without necessarily presenting false premises. The word derives from Latin fallacia, meaning deception or trickery, and has been used by scholars to describe how arguments can go wrong in ways that are not solely about truth conditions. In practice, fallacie covers both formal fallacies—errors in logical form—and informal fallacies that arise from content, relevance, or presumption, as well as manipulative strategies that exploit cognitive biases, ambiguity, or emotional appeals rather than purely logical structure.

Classification within fallacie varies by author. Some frameworks separate formal fallacies from informal ones, while others emphasize psychological influence, counting ad hominem, appeal to emotion, straw man, false dilemma, and appeal to authority among the common fallacie. Critics note that the term can blur useful distinctions and may be redundant with “fallacy,” yet fallacie remains a convenient shorthand in discussions of persuasive manipulation and critical thinking.

In education and media literacy contexts, fallacie is used to illustrate patterns of reasoning to avoid and as a pedagogical tool to improve argumentation. See also logical fallacy, rhetoric, critical thinking.