Middle Ground
The middle ground fallacy argues that a compromise between two extremes must be reached to satisfy a situation.
Example of Middle Ground
- Joe says the sky is pink and Liz says the sky is blue, so they should really just compromise and say the sky is purple.
- Dan says that all elephants can fly. Sara says that there are no elephants that can fly. So they agree that perhaps some elephants can fly. Compromising for the sake of compromise when there are indisputable facts being presented would be considered a middle ground fallacy.
Note
- The middle ground fallacy claims that since compromising is good, in any given situation the compromise will produce truth.
- Alternative Names: Argument to moderation (Latin: argumentum ad temperantiam), false equivalence, false compromise, equidistance fallacy, the golden mean fallacy
This is a common fallacy.