Wrong dilemma
A wrong dilemma or a wrong dichotomy is the suggestion that there are exactly two specific, supposedly opposing positions on a controversial issue , even if there are further possibilities and the two offered do not contradict each other. Such a dichotomy and a dilemma are constructed that actually do not exist.
The fallacy - a case of affirming a disjunct - can be used deliberately , for example to induce a sham election . But it can also result from unintentional failure to recognize additional options, e.g. B. “I thought we were friends. All my friends were at the party - only you weren't there. "
The philosopher John Searle attacks Derrida's view, "Unless a distinction is made rigorously and precisely, it is not really a distinction". In fact, he insists that “it is a condition of the adequacy of an accurate theory of an indefinite phenomenon that one precisely characterizes the phenomenon as indefinite; and a distinction does nothing more than a distinction into related, marginal, and divergent classes. ”Thus, when two alternatives are presented, they are often, but not always, the extreme points of a number of possibilities. This can lead the mind to an overarching argument that the arguments are mutually exclusive even though they are not.
Examples
- "We either do it right or we don't do it at all."
- "Political interaction is always a friend-or-foe relationship."
- "Either the theory of evolution is complete and correct in every detail, or a god must exist." (For this example: see creationism .)
- "You are either for us or against us!"
- Pascal's bet
Individual evidence
- ^ John Searle: The Word Turned Upside Down. The New York Review of Books, Volume 30, Number 16, October 27, 1983
- ^ A b Frank Zenker: Theory of Argumentation ( Memento from May 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Lecture Scripts, Ruhr-University Bochum, 2008. Bottom of page 13
- ↑ Massimo Pigliucci : Nonsense on Stilts. How to Tell Science from Bunk. University of Chicago Press, 2010, ISBN 9780226667867