Attacking Faulty Reasoning the five criteria of a good argument: Each fallacy falls into at least one of Damer's five fallacy categories, which derive from the above criteria. The text also sets forth 12 principles that constitute a "Code of Conduct for Effective Discussion." This code incorporates Damer’s fallacy theory and provides a procedural and ethical standard for the development of an effective intellectual style to be used when engaging in a rational discussion of important issues. Attacking Faulty Reasoning Attacking Faulty Reasoning is a textbook on logical fallacies by T. Edward Damer that has been used for many years in a number
Faulty generalization suspect that all swans are white. Faulty generalizations may lead to further incorrect conclusions. We may, for example, conclude that citizens of country X are genetically inferior, or that poverty is generally the fault of the poor. Expressed in more precise philosophical language, a fallacy of defective induction is a conclusion that has been made on the basis of weak premises. Unlike fallacies of relevance, in fallacies of defective induction, the premises are related to the conclusions yet only weakly buttress the conclusions. A faulty generalization is thus produced. This inductive fallacy is any of several errors of inductive inference.