| Category Mistake |
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Fallacies of Ambiguity
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Category Mistake
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Category Mistake / Category ErrorThe Category Mistake / Category Error occurs when one or more qualities are assigned to an object/person/organization/concept that cannot possibly belong to it. This could be ascribing motives to a person that are not that person’s motives. This could be ascribing attributes to God that are not God’s attributes. It could be ascribing qualities to a made-up story that made-up stories cannot have. Examples of the Category Mistake / Category Error
Molecules-to-man is a story. Like all science fiction, it is written in a way that fits the known facts. As the known facts change, the story morphs. No one can observe molecules turning into people over billions of years. There is no rational way to get the molecules-to-man story from what we can observed. It requires many fallacies, arbitrary assumptions, and made-up stories.
How can we know anything about anything? That’s the real question |
Other Pages in this sectionAmbiguity Barnum Effect Ambiguous Assertion Innuendo Sly Suggestion Syntactic Ambiguity Lexical Ambiguity Homonymy Shingle Speech Use-Mention Error Double Entendre Misuse of Etymology Garden Path Ambiguity Squinting Modifier Quantifier Shift Illicit Observation Metaphorical Ambiguity Euphemism Equivocation Redefinition Middle Puzzle Part Idiosyncratic Language Type-Token Ambiguity Misconditionalization Modal Scope Fallacy Scope Fallacy Ambiguous Middle Hypnotic Bait and Switch Definist Fallacy Defining a Word in Terms of Itself Socratic Fallacy Defining Terms Too Broadly Defining Terms Too Narrowly Failure to Elucidate Persuasive Definition Composition / Exception Fallacy Division Etymological Fallacy Nominalization Inference from a Label Pigeonholing Fallacy Conjunction Fallacy Disjunction Fallacy Information Overload Proof by Verbosity Argument by Gibberish Confusing Contradiction with Contrariety Type-Token Ambiguity Conceptual Fallacy Mistaking an Entity for a Theory Butterfly Logic Process-Product Ambiguity Recently Viewed |
