6. Logical Fallacies: Bifurcation

The False Dilemma of Bifurcation

Five, the bifurcation fallacy. It's an either-or fallacy, or what's called a false dilemma. So a bifurcation fallacy is committed when two propositions are presented as if they were mutually exclusive and the only two possibilities, when in fact they're not.

Could be more possibilities. In other words, it could be that another option exists. Either the traffic light is red or it's green, commits the fallacy of bifurcation because a third possibility exists.

The light could be yellow. Somebody says, well, the light is either red or green. Well, there's another option. So they're trying to limit it to two options. So red and green are contrary but not contradictory positions.

Instead, it may be that two positions are fully compatible they can both be true. An example would be, do we save lives or do we save the economy? That's typical of politicians. They try to pit one issue against the other.

Are we going to save the environment or are we going to keep drilling for oil? They try to put these two things and pit them against each other as if there's not a third option. Or it could be okay environmentally to take out a certain amount of oil.

They do this with all of the issues and they try to pit them against each other called bifurcation.