Denying the correlative

Denying the correlative is a mistake in logic where a person tries to create a third possibility where there are only two. It is based on the concept of correlative conjunctions, pairs of statements where one statement must be true and the other must be false. For example 1. Ginger is a cat. 2. Ginger is not a cat. If a person claims that Ginger is something else than a cat or not a cat, then he is making a logically impossible claim, and denying the correlative. It is the opposite of the false dilemma, which tries to reduce options to only two. Another is if a person were asked if he killed someone and said, "I fought with him". That does not answer the question.

References

Category:Logical fallacies