Card 24 of 24 · Presumption
Argumentum ad temperantiam
Assuming the truth lives exactly halfway up the mountain.
A compromise may be practical, but it isn’t automatically correct.
Example
“One person says the lake is 20 feet deep. Another says it’s 100 feet deep. The truth isn’t necessarily 60 feet.”
“Argument to moderation.” It misapplies the Aristotelian golden mean — a principle about virtue, not about facts.
Diagnosis: P2 is false. The midpoint depends on where the extremes happen to be set, and one side may simply be right. Compromise is a practical tool, not a truth-detector.
Chalcedon (451) is sometimes misread as a compromise between Nestorius and Eutyches. Its framers saw it as affirming both full divinity and full humanity, not splitting the difference.
“Some say slavery is moral, others say immoral; the truth must be in between.” Some moral questions have clear answers.
When two commentators disagree on a Greek word, the right reading is the best-attested one — not an average of the two.
Trail recovery
Distinguish practical compromise from truth claims. Respect the desire for peace (a deep Quaker value), while asking which view the evidence actually supports.
Try saying: “A compromise might work practically — but which view do you think is actually closer to the truth?”
Keep questioning. Keep exploring.