Fallacy of the Day: False Dilemma/Black-or-White

Fallacy of the Day

False Dilemma, False Dichotomy, Either Or, or Black-or-White

Open Ended

What what wrong with the following argument?

“Either pursue a high-paying job or follow your passion; you can’t have both.”

Black or White

Presents two alternative states as the only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities exist.

This attempts to prevent the audience from seeing that there are more options and forces them to choose from artificially limited choices.

Black or White

• Also called Either/Or, False Dichotomy, or False Dilemma

• Also known as the false dilemma, this insidious tactic has the appearance of forming a logical argument, but under closer scrutiny, it becomes evident that there are more possibilities than the either/or choice that is presented. Binary, black-or-white thinking doesn't allow for the many different variables, conditions, and contexts in which there would exist more than just the two possibilities put forth.

​​The two options are presented as collectively exhaustive: Two statements are collectively exhaustive if and only if those two statements cover all possibilities. In the case of false dichotomy arguments, two options are presented as collectively exhaustive when they are actually not. False dichotomy fallacies ignore alternate possibilities.

​The two options are presented as mutually exclusive: Two statements are said to be mutually exclusive if and only if it is impossible that both of them be true at the same time. In the case of false dilemmas, the two options are presented as if they are mutually exclusive when they may not be. It might be possible for both horns of the false dilemma to be true at the same time.

Multiple Select

Select all of the examples of the black-or-white fallacy.

• America: Love it or leave it.

• You don't oppose taxes? So you want the government to rob everyone and make us all poor.

• On the quad, I see the jocks in one corner, the rebels in another, and the intellectual set in yet another. Which one of these groups do you hang out with?

• Whilst rallying support for his plan to fundamentally undermine citizens' rights, the Supreme Leader told the people they were either on his side, or they were on the side of the enemy.

Open Ended

Write your own example of an either/or (black-or-white) fallacy.