What’s something really important that you’re just not thinking about right now? If there’s no future in the past should you forget this tomorrow? When can you continue to change if you’re about to decide that isn’t now a good time? What wouldn’t happen if you didn’t? How do you find that? Where does that […]
Category: Linguistics
Negative Commands
But – negates any words that are stated before it If – presupposes that you may not Would have – past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen. Should have – past tense that draws attention to things that didn’t actually happen (implies guilt) Could have – past tense that draws attention […]
Intension
In linguistics, logic, philosophy, and other fields, an intension is any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase, or another symbol. In the case of a word, the word’s definition often implies an intension. The term may also refer to all such intensions collectively, although the term comprehension is technically more correct for this. […]
Leading Question
A leading question or suggestive interrogation is a question that suggests the particular answer or contains the information the examiner is looking to have confirmed. Their use is restricted in eliciting testimony in court, to reduce the ability of the examiner to direct or influence the evidence presented. Depending on the circumstances, leading questions can be […]
False in one thing, false in everything
The Latin phrase falsum in uno, falsum in omnibus which, roughly translated, means “false in one thing, false in everything“, is fallacious in so far as someone found to be wrong about one thing, is presumed to be wrong about some other thing entirely. Arising in Roman courts, this principle meant that if a witness was […]
Splitting
Splitting (also called all-or-nothing thinking) is the failure in a person’s thinking to bring together both positive and negative qualities of the self and others into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism used by many people. The individual tends to think in extremes (i.e., an individual’s actions and motivations are all good […]
Black-and-white thinking
In psychology, a phenomenon related to the false dilemma is black-and-white thinking. Many people routinely engage in black-and-white thinking, an example of which is someone who labels other people as all good or all bad. See also: Splitting (psychology)
False Choice
The presentation of a false choice often reflects a deliberate attempt to eliminate the middle ground on an issue. A common argument against noise pollution laws involves a false choice. It might be argued that in New York City noise should not be regulated, because if it were, the city would drastically change in a […]
Morton’s Fork
Morton’s Fork, a choice between two equally unpleasant options, is often a false dilemma. The phrase originates from an argument for taxing English nobles: “Either the nobles of this country appear wealthy, in which case they can be taxed for good; or they appear poor, in which case they are living frugally and must have […]
False Dilemma
A false dilemma (also called black-and/or-white thinking, bifurcation, denying a conjunct, the either-or fallacy, false dichotomy, fallacy of exhaustive hypotheses, the fallacy of false choice, the fallacy of the false alternative, or the fallacy of the excluded middle) is a type of informal fallacy that involves a situation in which limited alternatives are considered, when […]