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When you want to ace a debate, turn to Aristotle for help. He identified “13 Fallacies” used
to win arguments. Here’s how to benefit from them
BY NICKY WILLIAMS
“Stressing key words can have a huge impact on the strength of your argument,” says Alex Just,
former president of the Oxford Union debating team. “Clinton did it famously with his use of ‘that
woman’ to distance himself from Monica Lewinsky.”
Aristotle argued that if a word is constructed similarly to another, people assume they have a
similar meaning. So by tacking “ism” or “ist” at the end of a word, you convey your meaning without
having to explicitly state it.
“Our brains do not compute that the rule may only hold true for a minority of cases.”
Use it “Women are much worse drivers than men. They are always crashing.”
“This argument works because at first it makes sense,” says philosopher Dr Gary Curtis, of
fallacyfiles.org, a website cataloguing logical fallacies. “It relies on stretching the context of a word
to its limits, then hiding behind it.”
Use it “It says ‘healthy eating’ on the box for this cake, so it’s fine if I eat half of it in one go.”
5. CONVERSE ACCIDENT Aka Finding the exception to the rule
“The exception to the rule is always an efficient weapon to poke holes in an opponent’s argument,”
says Just. No matter how strong their case is, you can bring it to its knees with an unequivocal
piece of fact.
The situation You are in the wrong and need an escape route. Quick.
Use it “Of course I’m romantic – I bought you flowers on Valentine’s Day.”
“You can boost your argument by inferring that if A is true then B is, too. And if B is true, therefore
A is true,” says Curtis.
“Your opponent won’t realise the arguments are supported by each other, rather than hard fact.”
Use it “If you can make women laugh, they find you attractive. I’m funny, so she fancies me.”
“People assume a group takes on the characteristics of its members,” says Cline. “So mention
upstanding actions of friends and your opponent will assume that together they’ll act the same.”
The situation You want a night out with your mates, but your partner isn’t keen.
Use it “I’ll be going out with Tim, he never drinks too much, so I won’t be back late.”
“You apply the attributes of a group to yourself and bask in its reflected glory. It works best when
you want to make yourself stand out and shine.”
Use it “My attention to detail and work ethic are illustrated by the many awards my department has
won recently.”
10. IRRELEVANT CONCLUSION Aka Unrelated arguments
“You can sometimes use two unrelated facts to prove a point,” explains Tindale. “When people are
emotional, they are often so fired up they fail to realise two facts aren’t linked.”
Use it “Since Gordon took over, productivity is down while complaints are up.”
11. BEGGING THE QUESTION Aka Using an unproven “fact” to prove your point
“This happens when you use an unproven but commonly believed fact to prove your case,” says
Just. “If you place enough emphasis on it, your opponent won’t try to argue against it.”
Use it “Of course, if Tim Cahill played as an out and out striker, he would score even more goals
than he does at the moment.”
12. FALSE CAUSE Aka Assuming there’s a consequential connection between events in
time
“This method works on the assumption that one event wouldn’t have happened without the other,”
says Madsen Pirie, the author of How To Win Every Argument.
Use it “The week Rob became manager, fewer people came into the cafe, so it stands to reason
that it’s because of him.”
“This catches you off guard,” says Douglas Rushkoff, the author of Why We Listen To What “They”
Say. “Shop assistants are trained to ask, ‘How may . . . ’, not, ‘Can I help you?’, as it makes you
think you asked for help.”