One of the earliest academic discussions of logical fallacies comes from the book Elementary Lessons in Logic: Deductive and Inductive, published by MacMillian and Co. in 1872 where the modern definition of logical fallacies is used: “the modes in which, by neglecting the rules of logic, we often fall into erroneous reasoning.” Today, this basic definition is still used, and often abbreviated to just “an error in reasoning.” It is not a factual error.

