Slippery Slope Arguments

Abstract

Slippery slope arguments hold that one should not do A in order to prevent from arriving in some clearly undesirable situation B. There are various types of slippery slope arguments which should be carefully distinguished. We should also distinguish the contexts in which the slope is used, as the mechanisms of social dynamics and the role of logic differ in each of these contexts. They are not fallacies, but they are only seldom fully convincing arguments - although they are often rhetorically highly effective. Their most important role is in institutionalized contexts like law where they may shift the burden of proof.

Revised version of article in Enc. of Applied Ethics, submitted for second edition.

Keywords: Arbitrariness, argument from added authority, critical morality, domino theory, drugs, euthanasia, fallacy, law, rhetoric, slippery slope argument, social morality, sorites, vagueness, wedge.