Argument by definition

From Issuepedia
Revision as of 20:21, 29 November 2009 by Woozle (talk | contribs) (some clarifications, and relation to new "definitional argument" page)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Definition

Argument by definition (also known as persuasive definition) is an argument in which one or more terms are defined in such a way as to effectively be an argument for the speaker's position.

It is a logical fallacy due to the fact that its intent is to deceive the listener into agreeing with an unstated argument by presenting a similar (but more persuasive) argument as being identical – a sort of bait-and-switch tactic.

Related

  • definitional argument: an argument which seems to be about one thing (whether something is of a certain type) but which is actually about something else (whether a set of rules should be applied to something because of precedent)

Reference

Retrieved from "https://issuepedia.org/mw/index.php?title=Argument_by_definition&oldid=18841"