This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
CAD: Technically speaking, a Morton's Fork is not the same thing as a Catch-22. A Morton's Fork is "If A, then X. If B, then X". A Catch-22 is "A requires B, but B requires A".
Micah: I agree that they're not the same thing, but I would claim that a catch-22 is a subset of a Morton's fork, or at least that there's a broad degree of overlap. Note that you can frequently rephrase your catch-22 template as, "If you start with A, you fail because of not-B; if you start with B, you fail because of not-A."
Eakin: Except my reading of this trope is that it isn't so circular. It's more "If you do A, outcome E because C. If you do B, outcome E because D". A catch 22 is just (viciously) circular logic rather than a false choice that leads to an inevitable outcome.
Micah: My Catch-22 template is a special case of your Morton's Fork template, with E="You fail", C="not-B", and D="not-A".
