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Two wrongs make a right is a logical fallacy that occurs when it is assumed that if one wrong is committed, another second wrong will cancel it out. Like many fallacies, it typically appears as the hidden major premise in an enthymeme — an unstated assumption which must be true for the premises to lead to the conclusion. A logical fallacy is an error in logical argument which is independent of the truth of the premises. ...
The major premise in a categorical syllogism is the premise whose terms are the syllogisms major term and middle term. ...
An enthymeme is a syllogism (a three-part deductive argument) with an unstated assumption which must be true for the premises to lead to the conclusion. ...
Often it can be a fallacy of distraction or an attempt to change the issue.
For example:
- Speaker A: President Williams lied in his testimony to Congress. He should not do that.
- Speaker B: But you're ignoring the fact that President Robertson lied in his Congressional testimony!
If President Robertson lied in his Congressional testimony, that does not make it acceptable or OK for President Williams to do so as well. In this usage it may also be similar to the bandwagon fallacy (as an "appeal to popularity"); both are red herring fallacies. The bandwagon fallacy, also known as appeal to the people, authority of the many, consensus gentium (from Latin consensus gentium), argument by consensus, appeal to the gallery, appeal to popularity or argumentum ad populum, is a fallacy where something is proven by stating that many or all people believe it...
Ignoratio elenchi (also known as irrelevant conclusion) is the logical fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but which proves or supports a different proposition than the one it is purporting to prove or support. ...
Ad hominem attack in the tu quoque form is a subfallacy. Accusing another person of not practicing what they preach clearly is not enough to reject or justify either. An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally argument to the man), is a logical fallacy that involves replying to an argument or assertion by addressing the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. ...
It could be considered an appeal to emotion when it is used as an appeal to revenge: Appeal to emotion is a logical fallacy wherein the arguer (who is using this fallacy) takes advantage of emotion to prove his or her argument. ...
Revenge or vengeance consists of retaliation against a person or group in response to perceived wrongdoing. ...
- They blew up our storehouses! So, we should burn down their village.
The wrongness of one action does not somehow automatically make it either morally good or rationally prudent to act in vengeance to that. Cycles of violence like this may also be justified using causal oversimplification, wrong direction and various attributional biases. See also groupthink. The fallacy of the single cause, also known as joint effect or causal oversimplification, is a logical fallacy of causation that occurs when it is assumed that there is one, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a number of only jointly sufficient...
Wrong direction is a logical fallacy of causation where cause and effect are reversed. ...
Attributional biases are cognitive biases which affect attribution -- the way we determine who or what was responsible for an event or action. ...
Groupthink is a term coined by psychologist Irving Janis in 1972 to describe a process by which a group can make bad or irrational decisions. ...
This fallacy is often committed by children. An example:
- Parent: Jim, why did you pull your sister's hair, don't you know that's wrong?
- Jim: I know, but she pinched me first.
To this, the parent may respond, "two wrongs don't make a right". ( However if the hair pulling was in self defence, to prevent more pinching, then it would seem that the hair pulling might be justified on the grounds that "She did it first".) The slogan Two wrongs dont make a right refers to the widespread belief that an evil act cannot be cancelled out by a second evil act, and is especially applied in the context of punishment or retaliation. ...
Alleged examples Death Penalty World Map Color Key: Blue: Abolished for all crimes Green: Abolished, except for crimes committed under certain circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war) Orange: Abolished in practice Red: Legal form of punishment Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered...
Affirmative action (US English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or a program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against. ...
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