Critical Thinking · Lesson 4 of 4

False dilemmas and strawmen

When you are offered exactly two options, the most valuable question is what the third one is.

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A false dilemma presents two options as if they were the only ones. "Either we cut the price or we lose the customer." Most real situations have a third option, and the framing is doing the persuading rather than the reasoning.

A strawman replaces the other position with a weaker one and defeats that instead. It is satisfying and it teaches you nothing, because the argument you beat was never the argument being made.

The counter to both is the same move: restate the other position until the person holding it agrees with your version, and list the options nobody mentioned. Do this and a surprising number of disagreements turn out to be about a third thing entirely.

See it happen

In a planning meeting, the lead says: "Either we cut the scope or we miss the launch date." Everyone turns to you.

The read that arrives on its own

Nobody wants to miss the date, so scope has to go.

The same situation, with this idea

Those are two of the options. Others: move one feature out and keep the date, ship to a smaller group first, add a person for three weeks, or launch on time with the rough edge named.

What changed

The pair was real, but it was presented as the whole set. Being handed exactly two options is the cue to ask what the third one is.

The takeaway

When you are offered exactly two options, the most valuable question is what the third one is.

Easy to take the wrong way

Deciding that every two-option choice is a false dilemma. Some genuinely are binary — the question is whether the set was argued for or just asserted.

Try this

Find a debate you follow. Write the opposing side well enough that someone who holds it would agree.