Condemn the innocent in two ways with Morton’s Fork

It ’s nearly Halloween , so let ’s discover the rhetorical rules of a well old - fashioned witch hunt . One of the most infamous of these rule is call Morton ’s Fork , a paradox which has been used in everything from effectual cases to scheme games .

There are all kinds of paradoxes . Some bob up from the kink in ism . Some come up from mistakes in mathematics . And some arise from the deep - sit down human demand to make life miserable for others . This last type of paradox – to no one ’s surprisal – rears its horrifying head in either law or politics .

One egregious example bears the name of John Morton , Archbishop of Canterbury in the fifteenth one C , who used it to make political argument back when politics and jurisprudence were more formally joined . He wanted people to pay more taxes . So he noted that people who lived cautiously and thriftily were exist within their means and could save a small taxation . On the other manus , he bestow , the big Spender who were bewilder immediate payment around could easily get by to drop some of that extravagance on tax . In other word of honor , anyone who was n’t raw in the gutter trying to eat moss could pay revenue enhancement , no matter how they behaved .

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The idea became known as Morton ’s Fork . Two different chains of reasoning , apparently rifle in paired directions , somehow fall to the same conclusion . Most often this conclusion is unpleasant , which is why the arguer demand to invoke Morton ’s Fork to begin with . We see it all the meter , now . If someone behave ostentatiously , they ’re making a show . If they behave the opposite way , they ’re making a show of reserve .

One of the most famous supplication of Morton ’s Fork was in Hollywood . MGM got strike by the heirs to Edgar Rice Burroughs estate for right of first publication infraction for doing a remake of their 1932 Tarzan movie . They could do this , because they had an concord in 1931 to make Tarzan . The estate sue , saying that they were actually remaking the book . The presiding judge believed , and wrote in his determination , that the estate was trying to “ impale ” MGM with Morton ’s Fork , write that “ either the 1981 film pursue the 1932 film , thereby conflict the volume , or the 1981 motion-picture show did not accompany the 1932 film , thereby breach the 1931 Agreement . ”

Of naturally , you may also recognize Morton ’s Fork from the fabled hag trial scenario where a judge promulgate that he ’ll watch whether a woman is a witch by throwing her in the water . If she ’s a witch , she ’ll float and he ’ll swim her . If she ’s impeccant , she ’ll sink and drown . Either fashion , she ca n’t get ahead .

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