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Informal Fallacy Diagnosis And Repair

Repair arguments that can look formally valid but fail because their premises, context, relevance, or category moves are defective.

This draft was generated from queue position 15 of phase_01_zero_any_coverage_batch_007_queue.yaml after the pre-draft disposition check found no accepted direct archetype, alias, duplicate-map collapse, or component/mechanism-only disposition that fully covers the accepted prime informal_fallacy.

The YAML front matter above is the canonical draft payload. The prose section is intentionally short because the required schema content is carried in the front matter for machine review.

Common Mechanisms

  • burden_shift_detection
  • category_boundary_stability_check
  • counterexample_probe
  • fallacy_label_justification_note
  • fallacy_triage_matrix
  • feasible_alternative_comparison
  • formal_vs_material_error_gate
  • option_space_expansion_prompt
  • premise_relevance_acceptability_test
  • steelman_then_refute_protocol

Compression statement

Informal Fallacy Diagnosis and Repair is an argument-quality archetype for cases where a conclusion may follow from the apparent surface form, yet the reasoning fails because the content, premise acceptability, relevance relation, context, comparison class, definition shift, burden allocation, or background norm is broken. It reconstructs the argument charitably, separates formal validity from material soundness, identifies the recurring defect pattern, tests the defect against counterexamples and context, and either repairs the argument, narrows the claim, redirects the burden, or rejects the inference.

Canonical formula: argument_unit + charitable_reconstruction + formal_validity_check + premise_acceptability_screen + relevance_context_test + fallacy_pattern_match + defeater_probe + repair_or_rejection_path -> improved_argument_quality

Abstractions this archetype builds on — directly (a source ingredient) or as a related pattern. Links follow the typed catalog namespace.

Built directly on (9)

  • Deductive Reasoning: General to specific conclusions.
  • Dialectic: Thesis–antithesis–synthesis reasoning.
  • Equivocation: A single token is used with two distinct referents at two points in a chain that presumes meaning-fixity, so an apparently sound inference silently fails.
  • Evidence: A defeasible, provenance-bearing relation between an observable trace and a hypothesis about an unobservable state.
  • False Dilemma: A partition of a rich option space is presented as exhaustive when it is not, so reasoning proceeds inside cells while real alternatives have been suppressed.
  • Informal Fallacy: A named, recurring pattern of defective argument whose error lies not in logical form but in content, context, or the relevance and acceptability of its premises — so it can be valid in form yet still fail as reasoning.
  • Nirvana Fallacy: Rejecting a real, available option because it falls short of an idealized counterfactual, when the operative comparison should be against the best feasible alternative.
  • No True Scotsman: When a counterexample to a universal claim appears, membership in the subject category is redefined to exclude it, preserving the claim by emptying it of content.
  • Normativity: What ought to be.

Also references 31 related abstractions

  • Abductive Reasoning: Infer the hypothesis that would best explain a surprising observation, accepted provisionally and held defeasibly against better candidates.
  • Accountability: Responsibility for actions.
  • Bias: Systematic, directional error distinct from random noise.
  • Boundary: Defines system limits.
  • Causality: Cause-effect relationships.
  • Classification: Sorting entities into discrete categories by explicit rules, turning unbounded variation into a finite, reusable map for downstream reasoning and action.
  • Completeness: No gaps in structure.
  • Confirmation Bias: Favor confirming evidence.
  • Confounding: Hidden variable interference.
  • Consistency: A set of commitments cannot jointly derive a contradiction.

Variants

Narrower or domain-specific specializations that share this archetype's core structure. Recognized variants are established; candidate variants are provisional.

Nirvana Fallacy Repair · subtype · recognized

Diagnose and repair arguments that reject feasible options because they fall short of an idealized counterfactual.

  • Distinct from parent: This is one named comparison-class failure inside the broader informal-fallacy diagnosis archetype.
  • Use when: A real option is compared to an impossible ideal; The operative comparison should be best feasible alternative rather than perfection.
  • Typical domains: policy analysis, engineering design, law governance
  • Common mechanisms: feasible alternative comparison, fallacy label justification note

No True Scotsman Boundary Repair · subtype · recognized

Diagnose and repair arguments that preserve universal claims by redefining category membership after counterexamples appear.

  • Distinct from parent: It is a category-stability subtype rather than the whole fallacy diagnosis pattern.
  • Use when: A universal claim is challenged by a counterexample; The speaker changes the membership rule to exclude the counterexample.
  • Typical domains: political reasoning, sociology, law governance
  • Common mechanisms: category boundary stability check, counterexample probe

False Dilemma Option-Space Repair · subtype · candidate

Repair arguments that present a non-exhaustive partition as if it were the full option space.

  • Distinct from parent: It focuses on partition and framing errors.
  • Use when: A decision is framed as only two choices; Suppressed alternatives would materially change the conclusion.
  • Typical domains: policy, negotiation, strategy
  • Common mechanisms: option space expansion prompt

Equivocation Meaning-Stability Repair · subtype · candidate

Repair arguments whose apparent inference depends on a token changing meaning across premises or conclusion.

  • Distinct from parent: It is a language/meaning subtype of informal fallacy diagnosis.
  • Use when: A key term carries multiple meanings; The argument relies on meaning fixity that is not actually present.
  • Typical domains: law, philosophy, product requirements
  • Common mechanisms: category boundary stability check

Near names: Informal Logical Fallacy, Material Fallacy, Argument Defect Triage, Fallacy Detection Checklist, Premise Relevance Audit.