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The Semantic Slippery Slope is a fallacy that occurs when someone argues that because there is no clear line between two concepts or because they "only" differ in degree, they are either the same thing or neither exists at all.
This fallacy is somewhat of an inversion of the FalseDichotomy, in which someone ignores any grey area and posits that only two contrasts exist. The Semantic Slippery Slope emphasizes any grey area and disregards clear differences. In short, saying the concept is too vague for any real decision to be made. The Semantic Slippery Slope Fallacy is also related to the regular SlipperySlopeFallacy insofar as committing the former will often cause the latter by inferring that one thing will inevitably cause the second thing, or that they're the same thing altogether.
A related trope is WhatIsEvil, where villains use subjectivity and word games to excuse away their heinous acts.
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!! Examples:
* This is also known as "Loki's Wager". In Myth/NorseMythology, [[MagnificentBastard Loki]] wagered that two Dwarven blacksmiths could not make a particular weapon and offered his head as collateral. When the Dwarves succeeded, they demanded Loki's head, but he made their claim irrelevant by stating that they had won ''only'' his head, and that since there is no clear line where the head ends and the neck begins, they could not take the former without also taking the latter (they couldn't just take the top half of the head, since they won the ''whole'' head). The dwarves then proceed [[MouthStitchedShut to sew Loki's mouth shut]]. The head was theirs, after all. Nothing in the deal about it having to be removed for that to happen. The term "Loki's Wager" has become used as an alternative name for this very fallacy.
* Also called the Fallacy of the Beard. Exactly how many hairs does a man have to have on his chin before he has a beard? What's so special about that number that X hairs means he doesn't have a beard and X+1 means he does? So therefore you can't tell if a man has a beard or not! (Except you usually can, at a glance, without much argument from anyone else.)
** This is closely related to the Paradox of the Heap: taking a grain of sand away from a heap still leaves you with a heap, therefore, since you can keep taking grains of sand one by one, one grain of sand is a heap. The solution is to use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_logic fuzzy logic]], where a heap can be defined with blurry boundaries, and taking away a grain of sand within a certain range makes it ''less likely'' to be a heap, and when the likelihood is zero it stops being a heap.
* Sometimes, you get [[{{Yandere}} an]] [[ClingyJealousGirl intimate]] [[CrazyJealousGuy partner]] (or a religious ideology) who believes that so much as ''looking'' at an attractive member of the relevant sex that isn't them is the same as climbing into bed with that person and thus cheating.
* This is used to save a character's life (and brutally screw over Shylock) in Shakespeare's Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice. It happens in a manner very similar to the Loki entry above: due to a wager between the two, Shylock is legally entitled to one pound of Antonio's flesh, and he intends to collect. Portia, disguised as a lawyer, manages to convince a court that Shylock can take the flesh, but can't take any blood without violating the agreement (and being punished with death). Worse, he can't simply back out, or he gets the same punishment.
* Also related to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_fallacy Continuum Fallacy]].
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory Horseshoe Theory]] -- also known as TheHorseshoeEffect -- is the socio-political equivalent; how different can Fascism and Communism be when they're both Authoritarian ideologies that focus on the collective over the individual? How different can Anarcho-Communism and Anarcho-Capitalism be if they are both Libertarian ideologies who reject the state? How different can Republicans and Democrats be when they are both political parties ran by American politicians who try and fight the status quo through legislation and public appeal?
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This fallacy is somewhat of an inversion of the FalseDichotomy, in which someone ignores any grey area and posits that only two contrasts exist. The Semantic Slippery Slope emphasizes any grey area and disregards clear differences. In short, saying the concept is too vague for any real decision to be made. The Semantic Slippery Slope Fallacy is also related to the regular SlipperySlopeFallacy insofar as committing the former will often cause the latter by inferring that one thing will inevitably cause the second thing, or that they're the same thing altogether.
A related trope is WhatIsEvil, where villains use subjectivity and word games to excuse away their heinous acts.
----
!! Examples:
* This is also known as "Loki's Wager". In Myth/NorseMythology, [[MagnificentBastard Loki]] wagered that two Dwarven blacksmiths could not make a particular weapon and offered his head as collateral. When the Dwarves succeeded, they demanded Loki's head, but he made their claim irrelevant by stating that they had won ''only'' his head, and that since there is no clear line where the head ends and the neck begins, they could not take the former without also taking the latter (they couldn't just take the top half of the head, since they won the ''whole'' head). The dwarves then proceed [[MouthStitchedShut to sew Loki's mouth shut]]. The head was theirs, after all. Nothing in the deal about it having to be removed for that to happen. The term "Loki's Wager" has become used as an alternative name for this very fallacy.
* Also called the Fallacy of the Beard. Exactly how many hairs does a man have to have on his chin before he has a beard? What's so special about that number that X hairs means he doesn't have a beard and X+1 means he does? So therefore you can't tell if a man has a beard or not! (Except you usually can, at a glance, without much argument from anyone else.)
** This is closely related to the Paradox of the Heap: taking a grain of sand away from a heap still leaves you with a heap, therefore, since you can keep taking grains of sand one by one, one grain of sand is a heap. The solution is to use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_logic fuzzy logic]], where a heap can be defined with blurry boundaries, and taking away a grain of sand within a certain range makes it ''less likely'' to be a heap, and when the likelihood is zero it stops being a heap.
* Sometimes, you get [[{{Yandere}} an]] [[ClingyJealousGirl intimate]] [[CrazyJealousGuy partner]] (or a religious ideology) who believes that so much as ''looking'' at an attractive member of the relevant sex that isn't them is the same as climbing into bed with that person and thus cheating.
* This is used to save a character's life (and brutally screw over Shylock) in Shakespeare's Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice. It happens in a manner very similar to the Loki entry above: due to a wager between the two, Shylock is legally entitled to one pound of Antonio's flesh, and he intends to collect. Portia, disguised as a lawyer, manages to convince a court that Shylock can take the flesh, but can't take any blood without violating the agreement (and being punished with death). Worse, he can't simply back out, or he gets the same punishment.
* Also related to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_fallacy Continuum Fallacy]].
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory Horseshoe Theory]] -- also known as TheHorseshoeEffect -- is the socio-political equivalent; how different can Fascism and Communism be when they're both Authoritarian ideologies that focus on the collective over the individual? How different can Anarcho-Communism and Anarcho-Capitalism be if they are both Libertarian ideologies who reject the state? How different can Republicans and Democrats be when they are both political parties ran by American politicians who try and fight the status quo through legislation and public appeal?
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to:
This fallacy is somewhat of an inversion of the FalseDichotomy, in which someone ignores any grey area and posits that only two contrasts exist. The Semantic Slippery Slope emphasizes any grey area and disregards clear differences. In short, saying the concept is too vague for any real decision to be made. The Semantic Slippery Slope Fallacy is also related to the regular SlipperySlopeFallacy insofar as committing the former will often cause the latter by inferring that one thing will inevitably cause the second thing, or that they're the same thing altogether.
A related trope is WhatIsEvil, where villains use subjectivity and word games to excuse away their heinous acts.
----
!! Examples:
* This is also known as "Loki's Wager". In Myth/NorseMythology, [[MagnificentBastard Loki]] wagered that two Dwarven blacksmiths could not make a particular weapon and offered his head as collateral. When the Dwarves succeeded, they demanded Loki's head, but he made their claim irrelevant by stating that they had won ''only'' his head, and that since there is no clear line where the head ends and the neck begins, they could not take the former without also taking the latter (they couldn't just take the top half of the head, since they won the ''whole'' head). The dwarves then proceed [[MouthStitchedShut to sew Loki's mouth shut]]. The head was theirs, after all. Nothing in the deal about it having to be removed for that to happen. The term "Loki's Wager" has become used as an alternative name for this very fallacy.
* Also called the Fallacy of the Beard. Exactly how many hairs does a man have to have on his chin before he has a beard? What's so special about that number that X hairs means he doesn't have a beard and X+1 means he does? So therefore you can't tell if a man has a beard or not! (Except you usually can, at a glance, without much argument from anyone else.)
** This is closely related to the Paradox of the Heap: taking a grain of sand away from a heap still leaves you with a heap, therefore, since you can keep taking grains of sand one by one, one grain of sand is a heap. The solution is to use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_logic fuzzy logic]], where a heap can be defined with blurry boundaries, and taking away a grain of sand within a certain range makes it ''less likely'' to be a heap, and when the likelihood is zero it stops being a heap.
* Sometimes, you get [[{{Yandere}} an]] [[ClingyJealousGirl intimate]] [[CrazyJealousGuy partner]] (or a religious ideology) who believes that so much as ''looking'' at an attractive member of the relevant sex that isn't them is the same as climbing into bed with that person and thus cheating.
* This is used to save a character's life (and brutally screw over Shylock) in Shakespeare's Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice. It happens in a manner very similar to the Loki entry above: due to a wager between the two, Shylock is legally entitled to one pound of Antonio's flesh, and he intends to collect. Portia, disguised as a lawyer, manages to convince a court that Shylock can take the flesh, but can't take any blood without violating the agreement (and being punished with death). Worse, he can't simply back out, or he gets the same punishment.
* Also related to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_fallacy Continuum Fallacy]].
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory Horseshoe Theory]] -- also known as TheHorseshoeEffect -- is the socio-political equivalent; how different can Fascism and Communism be when they're both Authoritarian ideologies that focus on the collective over the individual? How different can Anarcho-Communism and Anarcho-Capitalism be if they are both Libertarian ideologies who reject the state? How different can Republicans and Democrats be when they are both political parties ran by American politicians who try and fight the status quo through legislation and public appeal?
----
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Not a trope
Changed line(s) 11 (click to see context) from:
* Sometimes, you get [[{{Yandere}} an]] [[ClingyJealousGirl intimate]] [[CrazyJealousGuy partner]] (or a religious ideology) who believes that so much as ''looking'' at an attractive member of the relevant sex that isn't them is the same as climbing into bed with that person and thus [[InfidelityIndex cheating]].
to:
* Sometimes, you get [[{{Yandere}} an]] [[ClingyJealousGirl intimate]] [[CrazyJealousGuy partner]] (or a religious ideology) who believes that so much as ''looking'' at an attractive member of the relevant sex that isn't them is the same as climbing into bed with that person and thus [[InfidelityIndex cheating]].cheating.
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None
Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
The Semantic Slippery Slope is a fallacy that occurs when someone argues that because there is no clear line between two concepts or because they "only" differ in degree, therefore either they are the same thing or neither exists at all.
to:
The Semantic Slippery Slope is a fallacy that occurs when someone argues that because there is no clear line between two concepts or because they "only" differ in degree, therefore either they are either the same thing or neither exists at all.
