(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Logical Fallacy Bootcamp: The Middle Ground Fallacy [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-03-23  

For my next trick, we've got two women both claiming a baby is theirs!

Hi everyone! It’s time again for another Bootcamp entry! Today’s offering is one that is probably a familiar one, especially to those who roll in political circles: The Middle Ground Fallacy.

The Middle Ground Fallacy is the belief that a compromise or middle point between two positions or assertions must be the best solution or the truth.

It can be illustrated like this —

Person #1: A is true.

Person #2: C is true.

Person #3: Well, obviously then B is actually true, since it is halfway between A and C.

To give an example, you might have one person that thinks penguins can fly. Another says no penguins can fly. The “Middle Ground Fallacy” person would then stake out a position that therefore, it must be true that SOME penguins can fly. Or perhaps that penguins can fly some of the time.

And it’s true that sometimes the halfway position can be a valid solution, so as with many informal logical fallacies, context can be key. There are plenty of issues where there are gray areas, or where things hinge on matters of opinion, where the wiggle room allows that a compromise might well turn out to be a good solution. So just because someone is taking a compromise position doesn’t automatically mean they are engaging in this fallacy.

But it’s also true that such a viewpoint can be sorely, badly misguided, even harmful. Take, for example, the comic I’ve used to head this diary. Obviously, half of all cats are not going to be happy with the solution offered.

And there are times when negotiators offer this middle ground in bad faith knowing the resulting nonsensical middle ground renders the compromise ineffective. Think of negotiations for some kind of pollution control legislation, for example, where a middle ground compromise means that polluters for all practical purposes do not have to do anything, or such a minimal amount as to make no difference.

Avoiding this one for yourself is fairly simple — don’t automatically assume that the middle ground is correct. Check the facts, consider the logic for both sides, and make decisions based on that, rather than an assumption that if there are two sides, some middle point between the two must be correct.

It becomes more difficult when you’re dealing with someone else that holds to this fallacy. At that point, the best you can do is try to argue your own case with facts and logic and try to get them to see the fallacy for what it is. It doesn’t always work, especially when the person is maybe not acting in good faith and has a motivation for staking out that middle ground as I’ve mentioned, but the alternative is ceding to the fallacy.

Edit: I forgot to add the links to previous Bootcamp entries! Enjoy!

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/3/23/2159609/-Logical-Fallacy-Bootcamp-The-Middle-Ground-Fallacy

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/