Fallacy of necessity
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A fallacy of necessity is a fallacy in the logic of a syllogism whereby a degree of unwarranted necessity is placed in the conclusion.
Example:
- Bachelors are necessarily unmarried.
- John is a bachelor.
- John is necessarily unmarried.
This example seems watertight, but the problem lies with the necessarily in c). c) suggests that it is inconceivable for John to marry - however b) does not state this; merely that, at present, John happens to be a bachelor. For c) to hold true, both a) and b) would have to be necessarily true, but only a) is, since it is a tautology.