Notes on False Dilemmas

False dilemmas are logical fallacies, and are also known as the false dichotomy and the either-or fallacy.

One historical example of a false dilemma called false choice is when Eldridge Cleaver said during his 1968 presidential campaign, "You're either part of the solution or part of the problem."

False dilemmas may deny the existence of more than two options, or/and that all the options available may work in synergy towards a goal.

Cleaver's statement gave the voters the false choice of voting for him, which would make them "part of the solution", and voting for the other candidate, "part of the problem". For the assumption is that voting for a candidate is a solution to a problem. However, politics is much more complex than that.

Morton's Fork consists of having to choose between two unpleasant options based on two assumptions.

To paraphrase the Wikipedia entry on false dilemma,

"Either the middle class of a nation appear wealthy, in which case they can be taxed for good; or they appear poor, in which case they are living frugally and must have immense savings, which can be taxed for good."

It's a false dilemma because it does not allow for another assumption: that some of the middle class may not have liquid assets.

Black-and-white thinking (splitting) is another logical fallacy. It occurs when conditional optimism arises while things are going well, but at the first setback, quickly falling into despair. Another case is when a person labels other people as all good or as all bad.

In the first example, the fallacy may be counteracted by not relying on things going well as a condition for optimism because a setback could equally be used as a condition for optimism.

Indeed, each setback is trying to teach us an important lesson to help us learn from our mistakes.

In the second example, not labelling people as either all good or all bad is the solution to the dilemma. For most people have good and bad qualities.

"Falsum in uno, falsum in omnibus" is the final false dilemma, which means "false in one thing, false in everything".

This fallacy is used "to label someone found to be wrong on one issue to also be wrong with regard to other issues."

However, incompetence in one respect does not imply total incompetence.

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Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma