Fallacies of Ambiguity

-          These are fallacies that occur because of the ambiguous or unclear use of language.

Types of Fallacies of Ambiguity

1.       Equivocation

2.       Accent

3.       Amphiboly

4.       Division

5.       Composition

6.       Hooded Man

1.       Equivocation

Equivocation is the illegitimate switching of the meaning of a term during the reasoning.

Examples:

Brad is a nobody, but since nobody is perfect, Brad must be perfect, too. (The word “nobody” has equivocal meanings.)

Don’t fall in love because everything that falls breaks. (“Fall” is equivocal; one is falling in love, while the other one is a literal falling of objects).

2.       Accent

The accent fallacy is a fallacy of ambiguity due to the different ways a word is emphasized or accented.

Example:          

A member of Congress is asked by a reporter if she is in favor of the President’s new missile defense system, and she responds, “I’m in favor of a missile defense system that effectively defends America.”

With an emphasis on the word “favor,” her response is likely to favor the President’s missile defense system. With an emphasis, instead, on the words “effectively defends,” her remark is likely to be against the President’s missile defense system.

“You shall not bear false witnesses against your neighbor.”

The intended meaning of this passage is that I should not speak ill against my fellow human being. Fallacy of accent is committed when I interpret this passage differently by emphasizing or accenting one of its words. For example, if the words “false witnesses” is accented, then I mean that it is alright to bear witnesses against my neighbor as long as it is true. If I emphasized, “neighbor”, then I might understand the passage as saying that it is alright to speak ill against someone as long as he is not my neighbor.

3.       Amphiboly

                This is an error due to taking a grammatically ambiguous phrase in two different ways during the reasoning.

Examples:

“Lost and found: an umbrella by an old lady with two broken ribs.” How poor this old lady was; she has two broken ribs!

If Croesus wages a war against the Persians, he will destroy a mighty kingdom. (Whose mighty kingdom will Croesus destroy: the Persians’ or his own?)

4.       Division

We commit the fallacy of division when we take separately what must be taken as a group.

Examples:

                “Askalz is a good soccer team. Therefore, each of its members is a good soccer player.”

                “The choir signs excellently. It must follow that each member of the choir sings well.”

5.       Composition

                The opposite of division, this fallacy occurs when we take as a unit or group what must be taken separately.

Examples:

“Each member of the team is a good player. Therefore, the team is a good team.”

“Each human cell is very lightweight, so a human being composed of cells is also very lightweight.”

6.       Hooded Man

This is an error in reasoning due to confusing the knowing of a thing with the knowing of it under all its various names or descriptions.

Examples:

“You claim to know Socrates, but you must be lying. You admitted you didn’t know the hooded man over there in the corner, but the hooded man is Socrates.”

“I thought you knew your father, yet you could not even recognize that man who was wearing a coat over there, and that was your father.”