More than two paths

About this video

"Either you come to my party, or you're not my friend." It seems to leave only two paths: go to the party, or lose a friend. If you aren't going, the conclusion follows, so the trick is in the first reason. There are clearly more possibilities: you could be a good friend who is away that day, or ill, or already promised to visit your grandparents. Offering only two choices when there are really more is a fallacy called a false dilemma. A dilemma is a choice between two possibilities, usually hard ones; a false one only pretends there are two.

A false dilemma usually puts a choice that sounds good next to one that sounds terrible, and hides everything in between, so the terrible one does the arguing. "Either you get top marks, or you'll never get a good job" leaves out good marks, learning a trade, finding what you love and learning later. This short animation draws those hidden paths and the middle of the range back in.

The way out is one question: are these really the only possibilities? Then list the others. Sometimes there really are only two: a light switch is on or off, a number is even or odd, you passed the test or you didn't. A dilemma is false only when it leaves out choices that are really there. Like the opposite of "all", which is "not all" and not "none", it jumps from one end to the other and forgets the middle. This video goes with the Only Two Choices lesson of Logic Level 1 on Knaph.

Transcript

1. 0:00Come to my party, or you're not my friend.
2. 0:04Only two paths? Look for the ones left out. Away that day. Ill. Visiting grandma.
3. 0:11Top marks, or no good job? Everything in between got hidden.
4. 0:18Sometimes there really are two. A light is on, or it's off.
5. 0:24Before you choose, ask, are these really the only choices?