Amphiboly

Amphiboly (Web) is creating an ambiguous premise with poor or misleading grammatical construction.

Philosophy Pages has a great example.

Bruce Thompson:

The argument depends upon an ambiguity in grammar. One meaning makes one of the premisses true, but it makes another of the premisses false. The alternative meaning makes the second premiss true, but makes the first premiss false.

Fallacy Files suggests that typically the ambiguity is in abuse of pronouns or descriptors that could apply to either the subject or the object in a sentence.

Fallacies

[this page is under heavy construction]

Logical fallacies are statements which have the look of arguments, but miss the mark by being off-topic, incomplete, or by employing some trick of language. They are categorized at PhilosophyPages this way:

• fallacies of relevance:

  appeal to ignorance,

  appeal to authority,

  ad hominem argument, and

  appeal to emotion,

  appeal to force,

  irrelevant conclusion, and

  appeal to pity,

• fallacies of presumption:

  accident,

  converse accident,

  false cause,

  begging the question, and

  complex question,

• fallacies of ambiguity:

  equivocation,

  amphiboly,

  accent,

  composition, and

  division.

  
  

• Accent
  
• The fallacy of accident / Sweeping generalization / Dicto simpliciter
  
• Audiatur et altera pars
  
• Amphiboly
  
• Extended analogy
  
• Anecdotal evidence Anecdote is not the singular of data
  
• Denying the antecedent
  
• Argumentum ad antiquitatem Appeal to antiquity, tradition
  
• Argumentum ad verecundiam Appeal to Authority
  
• Argumentum ad baculum Appeal to force
  
• Bandwagon
  
• Petitio principii Begging the question
  
• Appeal to Belief
  
• Biased Sample
  
• Bifurcation
  
• Burden of Proof Shifting the burden of proof
  
• Conflating Cause and Effect
  
• Circulus in demonstrando
  
• Circumstantial Ad Hominem
  
• Appeal to Common Practice
  
• Complex question Fallacy of interrogation / Fallacy of presupposition: ("When did you stop beating your wife?")
  
• Fallacies of composition
  
• Converting a conditional
  
• Appeal to Consequences of a Belief
  
• Affirming the consequent
  
• Argumentum ad crumenam Money makes right
  
• Cum hoc ergo propter hoc With this, therefor because of this
  
• Division
  
• Ignoratio elenchi Irrelevant conclusion
  
• Appeal to Emotion
  
• Equivocation / Fallacy of four terms
  
• False Dilemma
  
• Appeal to Fear
  
• Appeal to Flattery
  
• Gambler's Fallacy
  
• Converse accident Hasty generalization
  
• Genetic Fallacy
  
• Guilt By Association
  
• Ad hoc Argument by explanation or fallback
  
• Argumentum ad hominem Attack the person
  
• Argumentum ad Hominem Tu Quoque What of you?
  
• Argumentum ad ignorantiam Appeal to Ignorance
  
• Ignoring A Common Cause
  
• Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle / "A is based on B" fallacies / "...is a type of..." fallacies
  
• Argumentum ad lazarum Poverty makes right
  
• Argumentum ad logicam
  
• Plurium interrogationum / Many questions
  
• Middle Ground
  
• Argumentum ad misericordiam
  
• Misleading Vividness
  
• The Natural Law fallacy / Appeal to Nature
  
• Argumentum ad nauseam
  
• Non causa pro causa
  
• Non sequitur Does not follow
  
• Argumentum ad novitatem Appeal to Novelty: Newness makes right
  
• Argumentum ad numerum
  
• Appeal to Pity
  
• Poisoning the Well
  
• Argumentum ad populum Appeal to Popularity
  
• Post hoc ergo propter hoc After this, therefor because of this
  
• Questionable Cause
  
• Red Herring
  
• Reification / Hypostatization
  
• Relativist Fallacy
  
• Appeal to Ridicule
  
• The "No True Scotsman..." fallacy
  
  
• Slippery Slope
  
• Special Pleading Double standards
  
• Appeal to Spite
  
• Spotlight
  
  
• Straw man
  
• 
  Two Wrongs Make A Right