The Fallacy Suit

52 cards. 52 errors in reasoning.
Learn to spot them in the wild.

What is this?

A reference deck for logical fallacies.

A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning — a flaw in the structure or support of an argument that makes it invalid, regardless of whether the conclusion happens to be true. Fallacies are everywhere: in political speeches, advertising, media commentary, and everyday conversation. Most go unnoticed because they can sound convincing on the surface.

The Fallacy Suit is a standard playing card deck in which each card carries one of 52 well-documented logical fallacies. Each card gives you the name of the fallacy, a plain-English definition, an example of it in use, and the underlying logic structure that makes it flawed. The suits organise the fallacies into four categories, and the face cards identify the most damaging, most common, and most deceptive in each group. Use the deck to study them, quiz yourself, or play one of the suggested card games — all of which, it turns out, map rather well onto the art of bad reasoning.

The four suits

Every fallacy has its category.

♠ Attacks & deflections
Fallacies that target the person or source rather than the argument itself
♥ Emotional manipulation
Fallacies that bypass reason by exploiting feelings or social pressure
♦ Faulty evidence & authority
Fallacies that misuse or misrepresent the support offered for a claim
♣ Structural & logical errors
Fallacies where the architecture of the argument itself is broken
The face cards

Not all fallacies are equal.

Within each suit, the face cards mark the standout offenders.

K
Most damaging
The fallacy most corrosive to sound reasoning in its suit
Q
Most common
The one you will encounter most often in everyday argument
J
Most deceptive
The hardest to spot — it often passes as valid reasoning

Browse all 52 cards

52 cards
Register interest

Be first to know when The Fallacy Suit is available.

Leave your name and email and we will let you know when the deck goes on sale.

Please fill in all fields and tick the consent box.

You are on the list. We will be in touch when The Fallacy Suit is ready to deal.