564 FALLACIES. 



therefore he deserves to die,' etc. Here we proceed on the assumption (in 

 this case just) that to commit murder, and to be a murderer — to deserve 

 death, and to be one who ought to die, are, respectively, equivalent expres- 

 sions ; and it would frequently prove a heavy inconvenience to be debarred 

 this kind of liberty; but the abuse of it gives rise to the Fallacy in ques- 

 tion ; e. g., projectors are unfit to be trusted ; this man has formed a project, 

 therefore he is unfit to be trusted : here the sophist proceeds on the hy- 

 pothesis that he who forms & project must be & projector : whereas the bad 

 sense that commonly attaches to the latter word, is not at all implied in the 

 former. This fallacy may often be considered as lying not in the Middle, 

 but in one of the terms of the Conclusion ; so that the conclusion drawn 

 shall not be, in reality, at all warranted by the premises, though it will ap- 

 pear to be so, by means of the grammatical aftinity of the words ; e. g., to 

 be acquainted with the guilty is a presumption of guilt ; this man is so ac- 

 quainted, therefore we may presume that he is guilty : this argument pro- 

 ceeds on the supposition of an exact correspondence between presume and 

 jt?res?/m/)^^■o7^, which, however, does not really exist; for 'presumption' is 

 commonly used to express a kind of slight suspicion; whereas, 'to pre- 

 sume' amounts to actual belief. There are innumerable instances of a 

 non-correspondence in paronymous words, similar to that above instanced ; 

 as between art and artful, design and designing, faith and faithful, etc.; 

 and the more slight the variation of the meaning, the more likely is the 

 fallacy to be successful; for when the words have become so widely re- 

 moved in sense as ' pity ' and ' pitiful,' every one would perceive such a 

 fallacy, nor would it be employed but in jest.* 



" The present Fallacy is nearly allied to, or rather, perhaps, may be re- 

 garded as a branch of, that founded on etymology — viz., when a term is 

 used, at one time in its customary,' and at another in its etymological sense. 

 Perhaps no example of this can be found that is more extensively and mis- 

 chievously employed than in the case of the word representative : assuming 

 that its right meaning must correspond exactly with the strict and original 

 sense of the verb * represent,' the sophist persuades the multitude that a 

 member of the House of Commons is bound to be guided in all points by 

 the opinion of his constituents ; and, in short, to be merely their spokes- 

 man; whereas law and custom, which in this case may be considered as 

 fixing the meaning of the term, require no such thing, but enjoin the rep- 

 resentative to act according to the best of his own judgment, and on his 

 own responsibihty." 



The following are instances of great practical importance, in which argu- 

 ments are habitually founded on a verbal ambiguity. 



The mercantile public are frequently led into this fallacy by the phrase 

 " scai'city of money." In the language of commerce, "money" has two 

 meanings : currency, or the circulating medium ; and capital seeking in- 

 vestment, especially investment on loan. In this last sense the word is used 

 when the "money market" is spoken of, and Avhen the "value of money" 

 is said to be high or low, the rate of interest being meant. The conse- 



* An example of this fallacy is the popular error that strong drink must be a cause of 

 strength. There is here fallacy within fallacy; for granting that the words "strong" and 

 " strength " were not (as they are) applied in a totally different sense to fermented liquors and 

 to the human body, there would still be involved the error of supposing that an effect must 

 be like its cause; that the conditions of a phenomenon are likely to resemble the phenomenon 

 itself ; which we have already treated of as an a priori fallacy of the first rank. As well 

 might it be supposed that a strong poison will make the person who takes it strong. 



