A fallacy is a mistake in reasoning. Although mainly fallacies concern mistakes in arguments, some fallacies relate to explanations, definitions, or other instances of reasoning. For instance making a contradictory claim, putting forward a question with unwarranted presuppositions, misinterpreting a statement by putting wrong emphasis on a word or phrase in it and the like are counted as fallacies, even when these are not part of any argument.

So, broadly speaking, fallacies can be characterized as mistakes of reasoning, whether or not the mistakes take the form of an argument. On the other hand, a fallacy is different from a factual mistake. If you say that Orissa has twenty districts, when in fact it has thirty, you commit a factual mistake, not a fallacy.

Study of different forms of fallacies can help us to improve our ability to argue well. In order to improve our ability to reason properly we should study not only instances of good reasoning but also examples of reasoning that are defective in some way or other. If we are familiar with these mistakes, we can avoid committing them.

Further, we would also be able to detect such mistakes in the arguments of others. So a systematic study of fallacies will help us to detect errors in the arguments of others as well as guard us from committing such mistakes in our own arguments.

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A good argument should have the following features. First and foremost, the premises should provide adequate support to the conclusion. In a deductive argument the premises should provide conclusive support to conclusion and in an inductive argument the premises should provide strong support to the conclusion. Further a good argument should have all true premises.

However, determining the truth or falsity of premises is not the special task of logic. So in our discussion of fallacies, we will not be concerned with defects in reasoning arising out of factual errors or mistakes in belief and thought. There are also other requirements of a good argument.

A good argument should be clearly stated, it should avoid circularity, ambiguity and emotional language. A good argument should also be relevant to the issue at hand. When any of these conditions is violated an argument can be defective.

Moreover we shall be concerned with those mistakes that are very tempting to make. In other words, fallacies are those defective arguments that, although incorrect, appear to be correct. Some patterns of mistake occur so frequently that logicians have found it useful to give names to these recurring errors.

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Many of these fallacies also have Latin names. One advantage of learning fallacies by their names is that one can detect these mistakes in actual arguments and guard oneself against these pitfalls.

Since arguments are either deductive or inductive, fallacies are often discussed both in deductive and inductive logic. Fallacies can be broadly classified into formal and informal fallacies. Fallacies which arise due to violation of the rules of inferences are called formal fallacies.

A formal fallacy can be detected by examining the logical form of the argument. An informal fallacy takes into account the content of the arguments and the purpose of the reasoning.