Critical thinkingChapter 7Pseudo-reasoning Fallacies count as arguments in the sense that they fit our definition of an argument. They consist of a set of propositions, some of which premises, one of which is a conclusion. But, one way or another, they are bad arguments.A fallacy: a mistake in reasoning.One commits a fallacy when the reasons advanced or accepted in support of a claim fail to justify its acceptance.A fallacy can be committed either when one is deciding whether to accept a claim on the basis of a fallacious argument with which one has been presented or when one is presented the fallacious argument oneself.A fallacious argument or inference: one in which there is an inappropriate connection between premises and conclusion.Almost all fallacies fall under one of the following two types:Formal fallacies: the inappropriate connections are failures of logical connection. The argument of inference is neither deductively valid nor inductively forceful, even where all implicit premises have been made explicit.Substantive (or informal) fallacies: the inappropriate connections involve reliance on some very general unjustified assumptions or inferences. We need only make these premises explicit in order to see that they are false and unjustified. The implicit, false or dubious premise will be of a general nature, having nothing specifically to do with the subject matter of the argument.The majority of fallacies that we encounter in everyday texts and speech are substantive fallacies.A fallacious argument can have true or false premises.Simply having false premises does not make an argument fallacious.Nor does having true premises guarantee that...