A related concept to the previous post about analytical razors is that of mutually exclusive dichotomies. This is a special case of the slicing, where things are divided so that they fall into exactly one of two different categories. The above example was such a dichotomy (male or female). While they may be adequate for some purposes (especially in the scientific realm), they are very rarely, if ever, directly applicable to real life. Whenever someone says that things must either be like this or like that, you should become immediately suspicious. There are gray areas in almost everything, and no issue is as easily divided as saying “it must be this way, or therefore it’s that way.” By limiting you to two choices, one of which you must seemingly accept, people can make very convincing (but FALSE) arguments.
Let’s look at some simple/common examples:
- “Either you’re smart OR you’re dumb” - Besides being a rather dull blade (what does “smart” mean? high test scores? high iq? how rich you are? how you do in unknown circumstances? how fast you learn something new?), it conveniently ignores the fact that most people are not one OR the other, but they’re something in between. Or perhaps, they are “smart” in some areas and “dumb” in others.
- “Either you’re with us OR you’re against us” - Again, I could be with you on some issues and not on others. Or I could agree with you in principle but not in how you’re doing something. Or I could agree on all counts and in both principle and execution, but not to the amount that you do. Why do I have to fall in exactly one of those two camps? (answer: because you probably want me to either give you money or you will kill me)
- “Either light is a wave OR it’s a particle” - Physicists (who I’m sure comprise a large portion of my audience ;-)) should recognize this one immediately. The truth is that light is BOTH a wave AND a particle (or neither, if you wish). It exhibits some properties of both, but in reality it cannot said to be one and not the other.
What’s disturbing is that oftentimes the division forces you to choose between two wrong options, when in fact you have other (more correct) options available that are simply obscured due to the way the issue is formulated. For example, suppose someone asks you “are you a dead dog or a living one?” Well obviously you are not a dog, so you’re neither a dead dog nor a live one–their question is making the assumption that you are a dog and therefore you must be either live or dead. In this case, the dichotomy (live or dead) is a fairly precise one (you are definitely either dead or alive), but they have made the assumption (or the declaration!) that you are a dog.
Equally distressing is when the seemingly right choice is in fact the wrong one, but it only appears to be the right one, again due to the way it’s been cut by the analytical razor. This is often accompanied with the use of convincing statistics or incomplete information about the situation. An common example of this is in sales: “Our shoes cost $50 while theirs cost $100. Therefore you are saving $50–that’s 50%–when you buy from us!!” What they don’t tell you is that their shoes will fall apart in a month forcing you to shell out more money for a replacement pair. Hopefully, most of you have realized this kind of thing in advertising; all you have to do is realize that this happens not just when someone is trying to sell you a physical product, but also when they are trying to sell you an argument, their point of view, a justification, or any other such thing. Recognize it, analyze it, and then decide for yourself how valid you think the argument is.
Why does all this matter? Well there is some evidence supporting the claim that many of the greatest thinkers of mankind have been those who avoided seeing things as simple dichotomies–Space/Time, Wave/Particle, etc. Perhaps more convincingly for me, many of the most intelligent people I’ve met have seen things in a completely different way from most people, often using the analytical razor in a very different manner or not even using it at all!
Tags: dichotomy, intelligence
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