This article is about the rhetorical argument. For the novel, see The Slippery Slope. For the film, see Slippery Slope.
This 1895 cartoon makes a slippery-slope argument of how weddings would look in 2001 if women got the right to vote.
In a slippery slope argument, a course of action is rejected because the slippery slope advocate believes it will lead to a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end or ends.[1] The core of the slippery slope argument is that a specific decision under debate is likely to result in unintended consequences. The strength of such an argument depends on whether the small step really is likely to lead to the effect. This is quantified in terms of what is known as the warrant (in this case, a demonstration of the process that leads to the significant effect).
This type of argument is sometimes used as a form of fearmongering in which the probable consequences of a given action are exaggerated in an attempt to scare the audience. When the initial step is not demonstrably likely to result in the claimed effects, this is called the slippery slope fallacy. This is a type of informal fallacy, and is a subset of continuum fallacy, in that it ignores the possibility of middle ground and assumes a discrete transition from category A to category B. Other idioms for the slippery slope fallacy are the thin edge of the wedge, domino fallacy (as a form of domino effect argument) or dam burst, and various other terms that are sometimes considered distinct argument types or reasoning flaws, such as the camel's nose in the tent, parade of horribles, boiling frog, and snowball effect.
^"Slippery Slope". TXSt.edu. Department of Philosophy, Texas State University. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
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and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized". The "Slipperyslope" represents gradual radicalization through activities that incrementally...
contrary to those arguments or assume them to be mistaken. A primary slipperyslope argument used against the practice of abortion claims that the continuity...
lucky socks, wearing those socks made winning the lottery inevitable). Slipperyslope (thin edge of the wedge, camel's nose) – asserting that a proposed,...
Accent False precision Moving the goalposts Quoting out of context Slipperyslope Sorites paradox Syntactic ambiguity Questionable cause Animistic Furtive...
well suited for explaining why some slipperyslope arguments constitute fallacies but others not. Slipperyslope arguments argue against a certain proposal...
morally significant; and d) legalising euthanasia will place society on a slipperyslope, which will lead to unacceptable consequences.: 797–8 In fact, in Oregon...
or highly likely (as it has already started to happen) – a form of slipperyslope argument. When this outcome is actually unlikely (the argument is fallacious)...
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1985 by Harper and Row. Described as a "circular tale", illustrating a slipperyslope, it is Numeroff and Bond's first collaboration in what came to be the...
eventual undesirable consequences. It may be invoked in support of a slipperyslope argument as a caution against creeping normality. It is also used in...
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Cambridge University Press. 10 May 2024. ISBN 978-1-108-47143-5. "SlipperySlope: Libya and the Lessons of Previous No-Fly Zones | the Washington Institute"...
& Order: Special Victims Unit. He was a lisping doctor in the movie SlipperySlope (2006). He performed as Jimmy Link in Serial (2007). Ratray appeared...
systems One-party system Two-party system Rogerian argument Show election Slipperyslope Sorites paradox Splitting (psychology) Trick question Strange loop § In...
a slipperyslope and prevent patients from seeking alternative methods which may not be legal. Arguments against include: It can lead to a slippery slope;...
likely. In this way it could be similar to the misleading vividness or slipperyslope fallacies. More recently[when?] Kahneman has argued that the conjunction...
Accent False precision Moving the goalposts Quoting out of context Slipperyslope Sorites paradox Syntactic ambiguity Questionable cause Animistic Furtive...
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