374 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC 



because the major is false : it assumes that the Koran contains 

 everything worth knowing and nothing that is pernicious. 



(4) A most plausible form of inconclusive dilemma is that 

 known as the Ignava Ratio, or Lazy Argument. It is based on 

 the unwarranted and untrue assumption that a certain eventuality 

 will be independent of, and uninfluenced by, a certain line of 

 conduct from which it aims at having us abstain : 



// is certain that you are destined either to pass or to fail at the 

 coming examinations ; 



But if you are destined to pass, you will pass without studying ; 

 and if you are destined to fail, study will be labour in vain. 



Therefore do not study for them. 



The incompleteness of the alternatives given, and the depend 

 ence of all the various alternatives on the fact of study or idle 

 ness, are sufficiently obvious here : though the question may still 

 perplex us whether the present truth of an alternative, or of a 

 hypothetical, judgment, involves the present truth of one definite 

 alternative, or consequent, to the exclusion of other alternatives, 

 or of the contradictory of the given consequent. 1 



(5) Of the same sort is the inconclusive argument against 

 virtue, based upon God s infallible foreknowledge : 



Either God foresees that you will be saved, or He foresees that 

 you will be lost. 



In the former case you will infallibly be saved, no matter how 

 vicious your life may be ; in the latter you will infallibly be lost, no 

 matter how virtuous it be. 



Therefore you need not live virtuously. 



But God likewise foresees that our being saved and lost de 

 pends upon the sort of life we lead virtuous or vicious. The 

 assumption that He foresees the result as independent of virtue 

 or vice, or foresees it to be independent of the latter, is groundless 

 and untrue. 



185. OTHER VIEWS OF THE DILEMMA. It will be seen, from 

 the various examples given, that the dilemma usually leads to an 

 alternative between two equally unsatisfactory positions though 

 the conclusion is not always and necessarily an alternative. The 

 awkward character of the position into which it forces an adver 

 sary is indicated by the saying that he is &quot; on the horns of a 

 dilemma &quot;. It is a vigorous and drastic dialectical device ; but 



1 Cf. JOSEPH, o/&amp;gt;. cit., pp. 166, 168. 



