Slippery Slope Arguments

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 that should be carefully distinguished. We should also distinguish the contexts in which the slope is used because 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, such as law, in which they may shift the burden of proof.

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