Timeline for What's so fallacious about the Slippery Slope Fallacy?
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| Aug 16, 2019 at 13:16 | comment | added | The_Sympathizer | @Mason Wheeler : The mean fallacy is to assert that the middle position is right, simply by virtue of the fact it is the middle. It is not the assertion that a middle position exists or - as it much more commonly is - a whole continuum of positions. And in that case, yes, it is true, in most cases nothing is exactly at either extreme, but also many things are closer to one side than the other instead of being exactly in the center, either. That's what a continuum is. You can be anywhere along it. | |
| Oct 27, 2012 at 16:31 | comment | added | celtschk | ... you would be hard-pressed to even define that middle). And finally, if you say "a middle-ground position is just as slippery" then you are certainly not arguing about what I wrote. The extreme position is exactly the position which is not slippery; my point is exactly that not being slippery does not mean that you are right; indeed, often (but, again, not always) it is a clear sign of being wrong. | |
| Oct 27, 2012 at 16:28 | comment | added | celtschk | @MasonWheeler: First, generally is not the same as always. Also note that "murder" is by the very definition "unjustified killing of humans" and therefore by definition cannot be justified; the extreme position is not "murder is never acceptable" but "killing humans is never acceptable". And in this form, it is indeed a disputable claim. For example, most people would consider killing in self-defense acceptable in certain situations. Also, a position in between the extremes is not necessarily (and indeed almost never) a position exactly in the middle (indeed, in most cases, ... | |
| Oct 27, 2012 at 12:39 | comment | added | Mason Wheeler | A middle-ground position is just as slippery, because it can be moved simply by moving one of the extremes. See the concept of the Overton Window, for example--the theory that this exact phenomenon not only happens, but is consciously manipulated by those who understand it, in politics. | |
| Oct 27, 2012 at 12:38 | comment | added | Mason Wheeler | But isn't this simply the Golden Mean Fallacy: the correct position is generally somewhere in between the two extremes? Its incorrectness can be trivially demonstrated with the following argument: "Bob takes the extreme position that murder is never acceptable, whereas Frank takes the equally extreme position that everyone he does not like should be murdered. We should work out a reasonable compromise; maybe only people who have caused real harm to you should be murdered." | |
| Oct 27, 2012 at 9:14 | history | answered | celtschk | CC BY-SA 3.0 |