False dichotomy fallacy

APOLOGIABy Hendrik van der Breggen
(The Carillon, July 1, 2010)

False dichotomy fallacy

A fallacy is a mistake in reasoning. Some fallacies are so common that logicians have given them names. Today we will look at the false dichotomy fallacy.

Logician Trudy Govier defines a false dichotomy as follows: “An either/or split that omits alternatives.” Govier adds: “to think that everything is either black or white would be to believe in a false dichotomy.” Of course, the truth of the matter is that there are shades of grey as well as shades of red, orange, yellow, green, and so on.

The false dichotomy fallacy is sometimes also called the false alternatives fallacy. Why? Because, as logician Edward Damer explains, “[t]his fallacy consists in assuming too few alternatives and, at the same time, assuming [mistakenly] that one of the suggested alternatives must be true.”

Some examples may be helpful.

Let’s say that I tell you it must be either hot or cold outside today. This is a false dichotomy because there are other alternatives that are omitted. It could simply be warm.

Or consider this. Years ago I heard a shrewd if not somewhat unscrupulous businessman speculate on how Orange Julius could improve its business. (Orange Julius sells delicious frothy fruit drinks which, in the 1980s, could be made even frothier and more delicious—and more expensive—by adding a raw egg into the blender.)

To boost revenue, the businessman (who, for the record, was not an OJ employee) suggested that Orange Julius staff should ask each customer: “Would you like one egg or two?” The hope was that customers would spend more money because of their failure to realize that there is a third (less expensive) option: No eggs.

The false dichotomy fallacy can be much more problematic morally.

In presentations of what to do with terminally ill patients we are often presented with only two options: physician-assisted suicide, or a lonely agonizing death. Sadly, often missing is a third alternative—i.e., palliative or hospice care—wherein a dying patient is given genuine comfort and pain is minimized.

Also, in discussions of stem cell research (which promises the almost miraculous healing of Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, etc.) we are sometimes presented with only two options: harvest stem cells from human embryos (which are human beings at their tiniest), or stop the research. Missing from such discussions is the realization that there are various other alternatives, such as using adult stem cells from human blood, bone-marrow, umbilical cords, and even fat—alternatives that are proving to be successful plus don’t involve killing human beings at their first stage of life.

(So not all stem cell research must be embryonic stem cell research. We can favour adult stem cell research, wherein no human being dies, yet be opposed to the morally-problematic embryonic stem cell research, wherein human beings are deliberately destroyed.)

In a conversation over what to do with frozen human embryos left over from In Vitro Fertilizations (which help infertile couples get pregnant) a scientist once presented me with two options: dump the frozen human embryos into the garbage, or do research with them.

My scientist friend was willing to do experiments on the human embryos—human beings—because, she argued, putting them into the garbage would be such a waste. We’re going to destroy them one way or the other, after all, so let’s do it in such a way that increases our stock of knowledge. Significantly, however, she neglected considering a third, more ethical alternative: i.e., making the frozen embryos available for adoption.

It turns out that such adoptions actually occur. Next time you’re online, check out the webpage for Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption Program, which is a part of Nightlight Christian Adoptions.

The false dichotomy fallacy – it really only takes some imagination and creativity not to be fooled by it.

(Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, teaches ethics and critical thinking at Providence College, Otterburne, Manitoba, Canada. The views in this column do not always reflect the views of Providence.)