Kettle logic (''la logique du chaudron'' in the original French) is a
rhetorical device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, ...
wherein one uses multiple arguments to defend a point, but the arguments are inconsistent with each other.
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
uses this expression in reference to the humorous "kettle-story", that
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
relates in ''
The Interpretation of Dreams
''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (german: Die Traumdeutung) is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what w ...
'' (1900) and ''
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
''Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious'' (german: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten) is a 1905 book on the psychoanalysis of jokes and humour by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. In the work, Freud describes the psych ...
'' (1905).
Philosophy and psychoanalysis
The name "logique du chaudron" comes from Jacques Derrida from an example used by Sigmund Freud for the analysis of "Irma's dream" in ''
The Interpretation of Dreams
''The Interpretation of Dreams'' (german: Die Traumdeutung) is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what w ...
'' and in his ''
Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
''Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious'' (german: Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten) is a 1905 book on the psychoanalysis of jokes and humour by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. In the work, Freud describes the psych ...
''.
Freud relates the story of a man who was accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition and the three arguments he offers.
#That he had returned the kettle undamaged
#That it was already damaged when he borrowed it
#That he had never borrowed it in the first place
Though the three arguments are inconsistent, Freud notes that it is so much the better, as if even one is found to be true then the man must be acquitted.
The kettle "logic" of the dream-work is related to what Freud calls the embarrassment-dream of being naked, in which contradictory opposites are yoked together in the dream.
[Mills, Jon (2004]
''Rereading Freud: psychoanalysis through philosophy''
p.14 Freud said that in a dream, incompatible (contradictory) ideas are simultaneously admitted.
[Sigmund Freu]
''The Interpretation of Dreams''
translated by A. A. Brill, pp.366-373 quotation:
See also
*
Dilemma
A dilemma ( grc-gre, δίλημμα "double proposition") is a problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is unambiguously acceptable or preferable. The possibilities are termed the ''horns'' of the dilemma, a clichéd usage, but disti ...
*
Alternative pleading
Alternative pleading (or pleading in the alternative) is the legal term in the law of the United States for a form of pleading that permits a party in a court action to argue multiple possibilities that may be mutually exclusive by making use of le ...
: some forms constitute legal use of kettle logic
*
Argument in the alternative
*
List of fallacies
A fallacy is reasoning that is logically invalid, or that undermines the logical validity of an argument. All forms of human communication can contain fallacies.
Because of their variety, fallacies are challenging to classify. They can be classif ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
"Kettle Logic – Freud on Defensive Arguments"
Informal fallacies
Dream
Rhetorical techniques