Argument to moderation ( la, argumentum ad temperantiam)—also known as false compromise, argument from middle ground, and the golden mean fallacy
, The Nizkor Project (accessed 29 November 2012)—is the
fallacy
A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves," in the construction of an argument which may appear stronger than it really is if the fallacy is not spotted. The term in the Western intellectual tradition was intr ...
that the
truth
Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...
is supposedly always a compromise between two opposing positions. An example would be to regard two opposed arguments, with one person (correctly) saying that the sky is blue and another saying that the sky is in fact yellow, and incorrectly conclude that the sky is the intermediate colour of green.
See also
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Centrism
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...
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False balance
False balance, also bothsidesism, is a media bias in which journalists present an issue as being more balanced between opposing viewpoints than the evidence supports. Journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the act ...
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Golden mean (philosophy)
The golden mean or golden middle way is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. It appeared in Greek thought at least as early as the Delphic maxim "nothing in excess", was discussed in Plato's Phil ...
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Horseshoe theory
In political science and popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that the extreme left and the extreme right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the ...
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View from nowhere
Journalistic objectivity is a considerable notion within the discussion of journalistic professionalism. Journalistic objectivity may refer to fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship, but most often encompasses all of these ...
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Wisdom of the crowd
The wisdom of the crowd is the collective opinion of a diverse independent group of individuals rather than that of a single expert. This process, while not new to the Information Age, has been pushed into the mainstream spotlight by social infor ...
References
External links
False Compromise at ChangingMinds.org
Relevance fallacies
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