Equivocation
From Freepedia
- For other meanings of equivocation, see Equivocation (disambiguation).
The fallacy of equivocation is committed when someone uses the same word in different meanings in an argument, implying that the word means the same each time round.
For example:
- A feather is light.
- What is light cannot be dark.
- So a feather cannot be dark.
The above argument commits this fallacy: The word light is used in the sense of having little weight the first time, but of having a bright colour the second time. Since the middle term in this syllogism is actually two different terms, equivocation is actually a kind of the fallacy of four terms.
The fallacy of equivocation is often used with words that have a strong emotional content and many meanings. These meanings often coincide within proper context, but the fallacious arguer does a semantic shift, slowly changing the context as they go in such a way to achieve equivocation by equating distinct meanings of the word.
In English language, the commonest equivocation is with the word "man", which can mean both "representant of species Homo Sapiens" and "male representant of species Homo sapiens". A well-known equivocation is
- Do women need to worry about man-eating sharks?
where "man-eating" is taken as "devouring only male human beings". Another equivocation is the Spurious Greek word android for a "man-form (male) robot", whilst anthropoid (human-form robot) would be the correct term; Greek word andros refers to "male", while anthropos refers to "human being", regardless of gender. A "woman-form" (female) robot would be gynoid.
To avoid this equivocation, science fiction writers commonly refer representants of Homo sapiens as "humans" instead of "men".
A separate case of equivocation is metaphor:
- Male of species Equus asinus is called jackass
- Ass is the representant of species Equus asinus
- All asses have long ears
- Peter is a total jackass
- Ergo, Peter has long ears
Here the equivocation is the metaphorical use of jackass to imply a stupid or obnoxious person instead of a male Equus asinus.
Equivocation is closely linked with the fallacy of amphiboly, where amphiboly relies on a syntactic shift.
Outside of its use as a technical term in logic, equivocation can also mean the use of language that is equally susceptible of being understood in two different ways, or, more generally, ambiguous language. There is often a connotation that the use is deliberate, and intended to deceive.
Equivocation was famously mocked in the doorman's speech in Shakespeare's Macbeth:
Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. (Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 3)
