fallacy, false belief

a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning

• pseudoscience — an activity resembling science but based on fallacious assumptions
• logical fallacy — a fallacy in logical argumentation
• pathetic fallacy — the fallacy of attributing human feelings to inanimate objects; `the friendly sun' is an example of the pathetic fallacy
• sophism, sophistry, sophistication — a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone
• paralogism — an unintentionally invalid argument

• misconception — an incorrect conception