Look at the question, 'According to Kantian ethics, how do you weight the value of pleasurable art against medical necessities?' The hypothetical speaker has a fundamental misunderstanding of Kantian ethics. His question of how different types of pleasure compare only makes sense within the context of hedonism, but Kant was not an hedonist. We can't really answer this question other than to explain why it does not make sense. Is there a term for this type of question? The closest I can think of is Begging the Question Fallacy, but that is not quite right.
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1What about "category error"?– Jo WehlerCommented Mar 24 at 20:50
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1Is there a fallacy here? A fallacy, whether formal or informal, originates from the construction of an argument, not from ignorance about the subject-matter of an argument.– Tankut BeyguCommented Mar 24 at 21:17
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Loaded question, a.k.a. fallacy of presupposition, presupposes a controversial (or false) assumption, although usually intentionally so rather than due to misunderstanding or ignorance.– ConifoldCommented Mar 25 at 7:35
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I actually think you can answer the question anyway. You can say, "According to Kantian ethics, you don't. You don't compare those things, because comparing those things would not be meaningful in Kantian Ethics."– TKoLCommented Mar 25 at 9:45
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"How does a quantum physicist measure the spiritual presence of a ghost?" -- he doesn't.– TKoLCommented Mar 25 at 9:45
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1 Answer
When a characteristic which can only be applied to elements of a particular set (or category) is attributed to an element not in that set, that attribution is a category error.
The question itself is not a category error. The question is ill-formed because the author has made a category error.
The underlying ontological error is the failure to first establish membership in the set before applying the characteristic.
I'd prefer to use more obvious examples to avoid digressing into Kant:
Suppose the characteristic "loudness of meows" only belongs to elements of the set [cats]. Then "How loudly can my dog meow?" is ill-formed if "my dog" is not as an element of the set [cats].
Watch out for interrogatory pronouns and adverbs. For instance: having run a certain way, with a certain person, to a certain place, at a certain time, on a certain surface, and so on are all characteristics which can only be applied to elements of the set [people who have run]. So the questions "How did Alice run?" "With whom did Alice run?" "Where did Alice run?" "When did Alice run?" "On what did Alice run?" and so on may all be ill-formed because of a category error if Alice did not run.
SEP: Category Mistakes may be useful.
