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Equivocation is a logical fallacy. It is committed when someone uses the same word in different meanings in an argument, implying that the word means the same each time around.
For example:
- A feather is light.
- What is light cannot be dark.
- Therefore, 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 "bright" the second time. This fallacy becomes obvious as soon as one tries to translate this argument into another language. 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, one equivocation is with the word "man", which can mean both "member of species Homo sapiens" and "male member 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".
A separate case of equivocation is metaphor:
- A Jackass is a male member of the species Equus asinus
- All Jackasses have long ears
- Karl is a jackass
- Therefore, Karl has long ears
Here the equivocation is the metaphorical use of "jackass" to imply a stupid or obnoxious person instead of a male ass.
Equivocation is closely linked with the fallacy of amphiboly.
Figure of speech
Apart from 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 porter's speech in Shakespeare's Macbeth, in which the porter directly alludes to the practice, appropriated and widely used by the Jesuits, of lying under oath by means of equivocation; see, for example Robert Southwell and Henry Garnet, author of A Treatise of Equivocation (published secretly c. 1595) — to whom, it is supposed, Shakespeare was specifically referring:
- "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)
References
- F.L. Huntley. "Some Notes on Equivocation: Comment", PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America Vol. 81, No 1, (March 1966), p.146.
- A.E. Malloch. "Some Notes on Equivocation", PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America Vol. 81, No 1, (March 1966), pp 145–146.
External link
Äquivokation | כשל לוגי | Ekvivokasjon | Ekwiwokacja | Ekvivokation
"Equivocation"