Talk:Morton's fork

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Odd explanation

This is a fairly odd explanation:

  In some instances, such as Morton's original use of the fallacy, it may be that one of the two observations is probably valid, but the other is pure sophistry: evidence of possessing wealth may be genuinely irrelevant to having a source of taxable income.

The reason it's odd is that living modestly is likewise likely to be "irrelevant to having a source of taxable income". One may be living modestly because one has no income at all but is borrowing just enough to get by on, because one has the actual modest income indicated by the living arrangements, because one has a very large income but is living frugally, or for a variety of other reasons.

In short, Morton's original use of the fallacy is an example where both observations are likely to be invalid. It is not, as stated in the article, an example where "one of the two observations is probably valid, but the other is pure sophistry".

Instead of making things up in the article, maybe we could find a well regarded original source or some standard analysis for Morton's fork and follow that analysis with references?

Bhugh (talk) 18:30, 23 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

bash bush

External Link removed:

Using an article on Morton's Fork as a pretext to bash Bush? Pleeeease. Can't some people discuss ANYTHING without resorting to political cheap shots?

False Choice Logical Fallacy?

Morton's Fork seems to be close to the concept of False Choice in Logical Fallacies.Septagram (talk) 05:03, 26 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV

"Specious", "unpleasant". It was a fact. Criticism like this should not exist in the summary pre-statement of the meme, only in one side of a balanced critique aimed at demonstrating the balance of conceptualisation later in the text.

Another Cultural Reference?

Morton's Fork is more than tangentially mentioned in The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey -- naturally enough, if you know the story. Is there a reason why that's not mentioned as a cultural reference? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.172.13.59 (talk) 06:38, 7 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Opposite of Buridan's Ass?

I think we should get rid of the assertion that Morton's fork is "the opposite of Buridan's Ass".

(response) I was thinking the same thing. Looking over both, it's hard to describe them as opposites. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.55.66.144 (talk) 17:33, 19 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Portuguese and Spanish equivalents

I've removed text claiming that the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking world has the equivalent "Between a cross and a sword". This is certainly not the case in the Spanish-speaking world: searching for cruz as a collocate of espada in the Corpus del Español only turns up references to la cruz de una espada - the crossguard of a sword. I've added the correct Spanish equivalent with a corpus citation; however, I don't know Portuguese nor where to find a Portuguese corpus. 95.19.216.216 (talk) 10:04, 20 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(response) FWIW I'm aware of a well-known quotation by Elis Regina the late Brazilian singer: "Between the wall and the sword, I am drawn to the sword", which comparison didn't really make sense until I read the analogy in the existing text.

Witchcraft test

I removed the example of a witchcraft swim test. Yes, the outcome (death) is the same whether the suspect sinks (innocent and drowned) or floats (guilty and executed), but the logical conclusion is opposite. Besides, the cited source (The Salem Witch Trials Reader, p. 5) makes no mention of Morton's fork, making the whole paragraph original research. Lusanaherandraton (talk) 01:44, 14 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]