Fallacy OF Equivocation
Fallacy OF Equivocation
classification : informal – fallacies of ambiguity
This fallacy is perhaps the most simple and obvious of the fallacies of ambiguity.
An ambiguous word or statement is used more than once in the same argument, with the meaning shifting implicitly but significantly between uses. It therefore leads to a misleading or mistaken conclusion.
Foundations
Equivocation is the type of ambiguity which occurs when a single word or phrase is ambiguous, and this ambiguity is not grammatical but lexical. It can be used both to seemingly belittle a concept or idea, or to raise one up to false pretenses.
Examples
Chinese is difficult. I am a Chinese, therefore I am difficult.
Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too.
Other Names
bait and switch
Note: On Sophistical Refutations – Translated by W. A. Pickard-Cambridge
© 2009, jhslee. All rights reserved.
