As you may have noticed, I have criticized a great many of the arguments made by radical right-wingers on the basis of mistakes in reasoning. The topic of critical thinking is an interest of mine, and along those line, I commend to you the list of logical fallacies compiled and explained by Dr. Michael C. Labossiere.
A fallacy is, very generally, an error in reasoning. This differs from a factual error, which is simply being wrong about the facts. To be more specific, a fallacy is an “argument” in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. A deductive fallacy is a deductive argument that is invalid (it is such that it could have all true premises and still have a false conclusion). An inductive fallacy is less formal than a deductive fallacy. They are simply “arguments” which appear to be inductive arguments, but the premises do not provided enough support for the conclusion. In such cases, even if the premises were true, the conclusion would not be more likely to be true.
It’s always useful to know what logical fallacies are, and how to recognize them in arguments made by others — or yourself.
ADDEMDUM: The resources listed in the Wikipedia article on critical thinking look to be most helpful. I am slogging through them, slowly.
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