You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Casual Slippery Slope Exception

Takashi March 16, 2019 at 16:45 2150 views 1 comments
Hi all, i'm trying to understand what does this exceptions actually mean.

"When a chain of events has an inevitable cause and effect relationship, as in a mathematical, logical, or physical certainty, it is not a fallacy." --> Taken from https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/162/Slippery-Slope

Anyone have a better example to illustrate the above exception? I understand that if event A occurs, it is more likely that event B will occur. And they have the same probability that it will occur that will leads to it conclusion. Thus it is not a fallacy. Am i right to say so?

Event A: Probability 80%
Event B: Probability 80%
Until last event

Comments (1)

andrewk March 16, 2019 at 23:35 #265519
Reply to Takashi I don't think it's about probability. The Slippery Slope argument says that if we make small change A, then we will subsequently make larger change B, followed by a series of ever large changes C, D, E etc until we make extreme and horrible change Z.

This is usually a fallacy when used in an argument, because it ignores the fact that in most situations each step is a choice, and we can halt the progression wherever we want.

The exception where it is not a fallacy would be where, once the first step is made, there is no possibility of stopping or turning back. Examples of that in the real world are hard to imagine. An example from physics is where one crosses the event horizon of a black hole. If you do that, there is no turning back, and you are doomed to be spagghetified by the extreme gravitational forces nearer the centre of the black hole. You will feel perfectly fine after crossing the event horizon, and for some time after - everything seeming perfectly normal. But after a while you will be pulled towards the centre and exterminated. You cannot escape.

I can't think of a similar exception in politics or ethics. All the Slippery Slope arguments I have seen in those domains are nonsensical. But theoretically one can imagine that there might be a case where there is one.