辩论中行之有效的方法是从理念或逻辑上去说服读者，以增强辩论的效果。可是，如果我们逻辑不清就会犯逻辑错误而影响辩论的说服力。事实上，我们几乎经常犯逻辑错误，在电视上，在报纸里，在我们平时交谈中，我们都会不知不觉地走入逻辑思维的歧途。下面的片段是来自美国作家雪莉•杰克逊的短篇小说《彩票》，作品刻意描写了村民在旧传统奴役下的愚昧。从亚当斯先生和旧传统的化身长者华纳的对话中，我们可以看看长者说话的逻辑错误，从这里我们对逻辑错误的隐蔽性和频率可见一斑。
“they do say,” mr. adams said to old man warner, who stood next to him, “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.”
old man warner snorted. “pack of crazy fools,” he said. “listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. used to be saying about ‘lottery in june, corn be heavy soon.’ first thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. there’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly.
长者华纳在上面短短的五句话里犯了五个逻辑错误，其中包括四种类型：
(1) 人身攻击：“pack of crazy fools,” he said. “listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them
“人身攻击”这个逻辑错误的做法是攻击对方本人，而不是反驳对方的观点，其具体逻辑思维是如果我能证明你人不好，那我也就证明了你的观点也一样不值一提。下面两种说法犯了同样的错误：
-- a critic is a crippled coach who teaches running.
-- dr. brown’s counseling>2页，当前第1页12