Card 12 of 24 · Ambiguity
Aequivocatio
Using foggy language to hide the trail.
An argument appears stronger because key words keep changing meaning.
Example
“Nothing is better than fresh powder. A warm bed is better than nothing. Therefore a warm bed is better than fresh powder.”
Equivocation. In syllogistic terms it produces quaternio terminorum, the “fallacy of four terms”: the middle term means two different things.
Diagnosis: “Nothing” is a quantifier in P1 and a noun in P2. With four terms instead of three, the syllogism has no shared middle and is invalid.
“God is love; love is blind; therefore God is blind.” “Love” shifts from agapē to infatuation. Aquinas’s doctrine of analogy is largely about avoiding this kind of slip.
“Faith” in James 2 (bare assent) and in Romans 4 (trust) can look contradictory until the term is disambiguated.
“Evolution is just a theory, and theories are guesses.” Scientific theory ≠ everyday hunch, whatever one concludes about origins.
Trail recovery
Define key terms early and hold them steady. When a conversation stalls, pause and ask each person to define the contested word — many disagreements dissolve or sharpen helpfully.
Try saying: “I think we might be using that word differently — what do you mean by it here?”
Keep questioning. Keep exploring.