Talk:Equivocation

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Margarine is better than nothing Nothing is better than butter Therefore margarine is better than butter

I have to say that the above passage is logical and correct: Margarine > Nothing > Butter It's that simple. I don't see equivocation in it. Whoever wrote this passage was a fool, because he or she was using enthymatic language: Implied bread was in the equation. I like to use butter in my skillet instead of margarine.

How about this one?

Libraries contain books, and books contain knowledge. Knowledge is power and power is energy. Energy, frozen in one place, becomes mass. Too much mass in one place creates a black hole. Therefore The Library of Congress should be a black hole! (maybe that is why Wikipedia is gaining popularity, nobody can get anything useful out of the Library of Congress!) - KeyStroke

I'm not quite sure how an amphiboly is related to syntax, so I removed that reference. Lucidish 21:40, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Context

Could someone add a few more words to the intro to explain what this is actually about? Is it used in logical deduction, writing, philosophy? Stevage 11:20, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Cleared up. Said it was logical fallacy. Logic, however, is used in writing and philosophy anyway. Lucidish 05:56, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

I think its worth noting one of the most frequent usages of this fallacy, when politicians and activists attack evolution as being "only a theory." 66.44.106.4 17:36, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

{{Help Me}}

In elaborating on the explanation of how and why the quotation from Shakespeare was a significant comment on the events of those times, I inserted what I thought was a useful comment. I have found that the additionnal piece that I offered has not appeared in the article; but, it still appears in a "hidden form" (within my editing page) as follows:

According to Malloch (1966), the source of the doctrine of equivocation was a short treatise, in cap. Humanae aures, that had been written by Martin Azpilcueta (a.k.a. Doctor Navarrus), an Augustinian who was serving as a consultant to the Apostolic Penitentiary. It was published in Rome in 1584. The first Jesuit influence upon this doctrine was not until 1609, "when Suarez rejected Azpilcueta's basic proof and supplied another" (Malloch, p.145; speaking of Francisco Suárez).


The two ends of this piece have been added to my original piece: namely, (a) ": < ! - - What doctrine does this refer to?" at the beginning, and (b) "- - >" at the end.

I am new to Wikipedia, and I have been unable to find any explanation for the "< - -" and "- - >" coding.

I am supposing that it is either a case of someone suggesting that I place the short piece in a new sub-section entitled "What doctrine does this refer to?" (which I think is a very good idea), ot that somebody is asking me to supply some supporting evience (which I can do, from the article of Malloch).

Either way, I am more than happy to perform whatever actions are required of me. I simply don't understand the "< - -" and "- - >" coding, and I would be really grateful if somebody could explain the meaning and/or the intention of that coding to me. Thannks (in anticipation) cogtrue 00:38, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

The <!-- and --> tags are used to place comments in the source code so that editors can see important information before editing articles. See Wikipedia:How to edit a page. For various reasons, it is often convenient to "comment out" something from the main article while keeping it in the source code. For example, OrphanBot comments out images with unspecified sources, keeping the name of the image file in the source so that it can be replaced easily after a source is provided. In this case, Mel Etitis commented out the paragraph in question. I don't know why he did so, but I'm sure he'd be willing to offer an explanation. In case he doesn't see this discussion, you can ask him on his talk page. Thanks. I hope this helps! --TantalumTelluride♪ 01:00, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
The commented question was asking for an identification of "the doctrine of equivocation". The article contains no other mention or explanation of a doctrine, only of the logical and stylistic uses of the term "equivocation; thus the suddent reference to the doctrine of equivocation was obscure. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 21:42, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the clarification. I will chase it up and submit a more coherent paragraph in due course. cogtrue 00:17, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Riddles

Is this true? I typed it up and was going to include it but paused because these types of riddles are more of a play on the definition than the word.

Equivocation is often used in riddles. A fairly common example:

Riddle: You are standing in a room with nothing but a table and a mirror. There are no doors, windows, holes and there is no obvious way to leave the room. How do you get out?

Solution: You look in the mirror to see what you saw, use the saw to cut the table in half, put the halves together to make a whole and climb out.

Equivocation is used twice in the solution: once for the word "saw" and once for the word "whole". It is worthy to note that the extra definition of "whole" plays on its homophone "hole".

MrHen. 18:33, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

What you speak of is different from straight out equivocation where a word, as uttered, can not be immediately understood without further contextual information.
It seems that here, the issue is one of actively switching the (previously identified) referent; and, as a consequence, the phenomenon you're addressing is neither that of a "riddle" nor of an "equivocation", but simply, that of a "pun".
As in: "He told the sexton, and the sexton toll'd the bell"129.94.6.28 01:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Also see Janus words for another sort of phenomenon129.94.6.28 02:23, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
Then you shout until you're hoarse, and gallop off into the sunset. Moon Oracle 21:13, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Additonal Example

What does a man love more than life?
Hate more than death or mortal strife?
That which contented men desire,
The poor have, the rich require,
The miser spends, the spendthrift saves,
And all men carry to their graves?
(Leemings, 1953, 201)

The answer, Nothing, can only be seen through a kaleidoscope of equivocations.

[edit] "Jackass" implies gender? Really?

A Jackass is a male member of the species Equus asinus

What does that make a female member? A Jillass? --75.49.222.55 04:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jackass example is misleading.

The Jackass example could mislead people, because there are two logical fallacies in it, not one. There is equivocation on the term 'Jackass', but there is also a fallacy of the form 'X => Y, therefore Y => X' (not sure what this fallacy should be called). Specifically, the argument switches between 'Jackasses have long ears' and 'Things that have long ears are jackasses'. Unless anyone objects, I will replace this with a clearer example. TheAstonishingBadger (talk) 00:04, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

I see that someone has changed it - nice one. TheAstonishingBadger (talk) 21:13, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
I really should read the talk pages before editing articles. William Avery (talk) 22:34, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It seems that there should be further delineation between equivocation and amphiboly. Vckngs7 (talk) 23:08, 25 February 2008 (UTC)