Equivocation
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A political version would be asserting that all Socialists are Nazis, because the Nazis called themselves the "National Socialist Party". | A political version would be asserting that all Socialists are Nazis, because the Nazis called themselves the "National Socialist Party". | ||
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[[Category:Evaluating arguments]] | [[Category:Evaluating arguments]] | ||
[[category:Philosophy of science]] | [[category:Philosophy of science]] | ||
Revision as of 14:37, 10 September 2007
Equivocation is a logical fallacy that relies on the different meanings a word can have in different contexts. It is a favorite fallacy of creationist and woo hucksters alike. It can be used both to seemingly belittle a concept or idea, or to raise one up to false pretenses. Probably the most common example is the creationist use of the phrase "evolution is just a theory." This is an equivocation of the term "theory" as it is used in common parlance versus the specific meaning it has in science. Other times it can be used to disguise bullshit like in sham quantum physics where people like Deepak Chopra use equivocation to make their ideas sound like they have some basis in reality.
A political version would be asserting that all Socialists are Nazis, because the Nazis called themselves the "National Socialist Party".
See also