Proper reasoning is fundamental to the exchange of ideas. In an allegorical sense, it is the common currency in the Marketplace of Ideas. Every profession (even politics, believe it or not) relies at some point on the use of logic and sound reasoning. Unfortunately, many people appear to be passing through their public education (at least in the United States) without being expected to demonstrate even basic reasoning skills. Even Universities seem to be willing to pass students without this fundamental skill. I probably would never have learned basic logic were it not for the efforts of an excellent professor, Dr. Jay Harman, who took the time to introduce me and several other students to proper reasoning in an undergraduate course on environmental ethics. While I cannot claim anything near perfection, a basic understanding of the principles of logic has helped me to identify many of the basic mistakes in my reasoning more readily (e.g. they end up in a publication). Although logic is much more than a list of fallacies, I have decided to focus on the informal fallacies because they address many key concepts and because they might whet your appetite for a deeper understanding. Writing this primer is helping me to refresh my knowledge of this subject matter, and the result will hopefully help you identify some of the basic fallacies of informal logic.
