Sliding *up* the slippery slope!

[seebs]

This thread over at ChristianForums shows something I've never seen before; consideration of whether the "slippery slope" is the right name for the fallacy of supporting something because you believe it will lead to more-positive outcomes.

I think it's probably the best description of the error, but I've never seen it used that way before. Cool!

[Tom Morris]

That's interesting and scary at the same time.

[JoeP]

One of the participants says "Once the government starts pulling troops out of Germany, they will want to pull more troops out of Germans."

If American troops are in the Germans, maybe the slope is not the only thing that's slippery?

[livius drusus]

That is interesting, seebs. I found when I was reading his Germnay example that the positive outcome sort of masked the fallacy. I had to read it twice to set my head right.

On the lighter side, yeah JoeP, that was a pretty damn funny typo. He he...

[tamiO]

Ha. There is a perfect smiley here to express my feelings after reading that thread.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by seebs

This thread over at ChristianForums shows something I've never seen before; consideration of whether the "slippery slope" is the right name for the fallacy of supporting something because you believe it will lead to more-positive outcomes.

I think it's probably the best description of the error, but I've never seen it used that way before. Cool!

It is an interesting thing to ponder. But I don't consider the problem of a slippery slope fallacy to be that the end result is negative as much as erroneous. IOW the danger of a slippery slope argument about troop withdrawls from Germany isn't whether the conclusion is good or bad, but if it's logical. This seems apparent to me. Am I just stating the obvious or completely off-base?

[seebs]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

It is an interesting thing to ponder. But I don't consider the problem of a slippery slope fallacy to be that the end result is negative as much as erroneous. IOW the danger of a slippery slope argument about troop withdrawls from Germany isn't whether the conclusion is good or bad, but if it's logical. This seems apparent to me. Am I just stating the obvious or completely off-base?

Well, that's the point - you never see the term "slippery slope" used to describe such a thing, but obviously it's the same thing.

[viscousmemories]

Originally Posted by seebs

Well, that's the point - you never see the term "slippery slope" used to describe such a thing, but obviously it's the same thing.

Oh, you mean there are a lot of sloppy thinkers out there? Huh.