DON'T FALL FOR FALLACIES

You've heard of the Seven Deadly Sins, right? Sure you have. You've seen that movie where Brad Pitt is a tough cop on the trail of a serial killer whose horrific crimes mimic all seven. (Or is that se7en?). There's greed, sloth, anger…uh…and four others that we can't recall.

But that's not important right now, because in this lesson we're talking about the Seven Deadly Logical Sins.

Testing credibility and thinking critically are two important lines of defense: they can help you spot information or data that's made up or just plain wrong. But they may not help you avoid bad logic altogether. Even people who seem credible commit logical fallacies from time to time. (Ahem…politicians.)

By the end of this lesson, you'll have a good handle on seven of the most common logical fallacies. You'll be well on your way to spotting fallacies in everyday life (trust us, they're everywhere).

You'll also be able to start writing a script for a feature film about a tough journalist on the trail of a serial liar whose logical crimes mimic each of the seven logical sins.

Keep in mind that Heinrichs' seven examples don't cover every fallacy under the sun—just the most common ones.

Oh, and remember that fallacy at the beginning of this section? By now you've probably figured out that it's an example of the False Choice fallacy. More specifically, it's a False Dilemma. We claimed you have two choices—you can:

• Know your fallacies and spot them, or

• Remain ignorant and fall for them.

Of course, there are more than just those two possibilities. Here's a third one that we think serves as an appropriate warning to wrap up this lesson:

• You can know your fallacies and still fall for them.

So be on the lookout, folks.