Sophistical Refutations, Aristotle’s 13 Fallacies, 350 BC

1.     Accent: changing the meaning of a quotation by changing or ignoring the accent on certain words, common journalistic or political spin.

2.     Amphiboly: use of language that has multiple meanings to obfuscate or mislead.

3.     Equivocation: deliberate misuse of language to obscure, confuse and belittle a concept

4.     Composition: Assertion that an overall principal is true when only a part it is true

5.     Division: Assert an overall truth as support that a part of the overall is true also.

6.     Figure of Speech: using the vagaries of language, gender or cases to assert fallacy

7.     Accident: use of a general rule in support of a false specific.

8.     Affirming the Consequent: arguing backwards from a true consequent to a fallacy, used repeatedly by journalists in what can only be called perception management.

9.     In a Certain Respect/Simply; True in small area, therefore true in larger area, as in the application of medical statistics

10.  Ignorance of Refutation: Evidence leads to X, yet conclusion Y is drawn.

11.  Begging the Question: If a topic is not wrong, it is right. If you’re not good, you are bad.

12.  False Cause: X and Y are associated; therefore, X causes Y without any proof.

13.  Many Questions: to change the subject slightly in order to answer a similar question and assert a false or unrelated answer.