Equivocation. Equivocation Fallacy: Examples. Equivocation is when a word shifts meaning in an argument. In Star Wars: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi tells Luke the Darth Vader “betrayed and murdered your father.” [SPOILER:] It turns out that Darth Vader actually is Luke’s father, and that Obi-Wan was speaking metaphorically. However, he is ultimately killed by Macduff, a man who was birthed by Caesarean section – in Elizabethan culture, this means he was never “born.” Thus, the prophecy is an equivocation, leading Macbeth to believe he is invincible when in fact he is not. In Shakespeare’s play, the Weird Sisters (witches who can predict the future) reassure Macbeth that he cannot be killed by anyone “of woman born.” Macbeth takes this to mean that no human beings can destroy him. I have faith in evolutionary theory. Real sentences showing how to use Equivocation correctly. However, when the war ended the text was interpreted in such a way that “Arab lands” meant only a small portion of what Faisal thought he was agreeing to. Example of Equivocation. An elephant is an animal. Also, the sun is a star, which must mean that singer X and the sun are identical in many ways.”, “It is right to be sad instead of joyous because it’s everyone’s right to feel sad if they wish to.”. The two essential elements of equivocation are: During a school-closure controversy, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel used the phrase “optimize school resource utilization” instead of “close schools.” The ambiguity of his language allowed him to avoid stating directly what his policy entailed. It’s often used by dishonest politicians who want to seem like they agree with everyone. However, the Robot Devil tricks her – she thinks that she is agreeing to give up one of her physical hands, but in fact she is agreeing to give the Devil her hand in marriage. Moreover, this phrase is so ambiguous that, without prior knowledge of the situation, you might actually think that Mayor Emanuel’s policy was the opposite of school closures! Pain killers will make a headache go away. Equivocation Fallacy: Definition and Examples The term equivocation refers to the use of ambiguous language in an attempt to hide the truth or avoid commitment to a point of view. Let us look at some popular, hilarious, and widely-used examples of equivocation fallacy in politics, media, and in our everyday lives. In other words, someone uses the same phrase to mean two different things in a way that renders the argument unsound. The two may never speak, which means there are no opportunities for equivocation; however, the administrator is definitely prevaricating and attempting to avoid difficult questions! An effort (conscious or unconscious) to deceive others. Equivocation is a fallacy by which a specific word or phrase in an argument is used with more than one meaning.It's also known as semantic equivocation. An equivocator is a person who tries to mislead through language. However, prevarication is a broader term that can also encompass non-verbal behaviors: for example, imagine an administrator who avoids being in the same room as a newspaper reporter. The term equivocation refers to the use of ambiguous language in an attempt to hide the truth or avoid commitment to a point of view. In a pun, you’re using the ambiguity of language for humor rather than deception – but the principle is very similar! A word’s multiple meanings are being played off one another for rhetorical effect. The fallacy of equivocation uses misleading terms of more than one meaning without clarifying which definition is intended in the scenario..