Red Herring Fallacy, Explained

Red Herring Fallacy, Explained

The red herring fallacy, one of the many logical fallacies you might encounter in essays, speeches, opinion pieces, and casual conversations, is an attempt to reroute a discussion from its original topic and focus on something unrelated. Once you know how to recognize them, you can remove them before they undermine your arguments.

The Red Herring Fallacy

A red herring is a misleading statement, question, or argument meant to redirect a conversation away from its original topic

Purpose of a red herring

Distracts the reader or listener from the actual issue being discussed in a conversation or piece of writing

When do people use red herrings?

Debates

Red herrings in debate

Participants might use a red herring to avoid discussing a topic for which they don’t have a well-developed position

What are some examples of a red herring?

Avoiding the issue: moves an argument away from its original topic by introducing an irrelevant statement

Red herrings in arguments

An individual might use a red herring in an argument to distract the other party from the criticism they are making

Red herrings in philosophy and pedagogy

In philosophy, red herrings might be intentionally employed as a way to drive readers to think critically about a new argument

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