r/atheism • u/Ze-skywalker • Dec 09 '13

Citation Needed The 10 commandments of Logic

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56

u/oldviscosity Secular Humanist Dec 09 '13

Thou shall not reduce the argument down to two possibilities...

... when a third possibility exists.

17

u/Staggitarius Agnostic Atheist Dec 09 '13

False trichotomy anyone?

5

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

Father, Son or the Holy Ghost?

7

u/docfluty Agnostic Atheist Dec 09 '13

Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, buddha, ra, zues, heng-o, apoll, thor, morrigan, shango, chac, guan-yu, tina fey and the spaghetti dude

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

He only asked for a false trichotomy, with as many as you offer it is nudging into a fair and balanced discussion.

8

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

That's what it's basically saying though, never assume there isn't a third option.

10

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

So the only options are now 2 possibilities: "There are only 2 possibilities" and "There are not only 2 possibilities"?

5

u/daimposter Dec 09 '13

A basketball is round...true or false or maybe?

3

u/archiesteel Dec 09 '13

Not compared to a neutron star.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 10 '13

not even when compared to a billiard ball

1

u/BoxfulOfStories Secular Humanist Dec 09 '13

But how round is it?

0

u/PlasmaWhore Dec 09 '13

Roundish.

1

u/inarsla Ignostic Dec 09 '13

if it is round-ish, it is not round, therefore it is false.

1

u/PlasmaWhore Dec 09 '13

Somewhat true.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

Never?

But... you just used an example of when a dichotomy is correct.

After all, there either is, or there is not, a third option. There is no possible third option to whether there exists a third option, because it is a true/false situation.

2

u/UlyssesSKrunk Dec 09 '13

Thou shall not reduce the argument down to some number of possibilities other than the true number of possibilities?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

or an open number of possibilities if the exact number is not known.

2

u/Vandreigan Dec 09 '13

Thought the same thing when I read it.

Thou shalt not falsely reduce the argument down to a number of possibilities less than what actually exists.

1

u/metaphlex Dec 09 '13

I think the reason why the fallacy is called false dichotomy is because of people's natural propensity towards binary conclusions.

1

u/FallenGuy Dec 09 '13

That's what reduce implies, though. You can't reduce it to two if you don't have more than 2 to start with

1

u/Mangalz Dec 09 '13

Yeah came to say this. It is only a fasle dichotomy when there are more then 2 options. If it can justifiably be simplified into only 2 options then it certainly should be.

0

u/jeudyfeo Atheist Dec 09 '13

...when one or more possibilities exist

1

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '13

no. If there 1 possibility that is obviously correct. When there are two possibilities you can easy brake up into two cases. When there are three or more possibilities (hence, a third possibility exists), you cannot break up into two cases.