Talk:Vicious circle (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't think the true definition of a vicious circle is described in any of these (maybe the economics article, but that's a bit specific). First of all, I believe a vicious circle and circular logic are fundamentaly different. And I'd describe a vicious circle as negative feedback loop, rather than a positive one. More importantly, the definition of a feedback loop isn't very clear in the feedback article, expecially for someone looking for the definiton of vicious circle. I would describe it along the lines of " a situation that gets increasingly and exponentially worse because of a negative feedback loop" with an example of interest payments increasing your debt, which increases your debt, etc.

See the About.com definitons for more: http://www.answers.com/vicious%20circle Risk one 00:19, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree with you completely that vicious circles and circular logic are distinct. This needs to be changed. I disagree that vicious circles are negative feedback because vicious circles make situations worse, but the positive or negative in the context of feedback loop refers to the direction that the quantity is being changed. Vicious circles get worse and worse, hence each iteration sends the situation further and further into bad, hence it is a positive coefficient. Also, I don't think the situation has to necessarily get worse at an exponential rate, it only has to avoid equilibrium. I propose, "a situation that gets increasingly worse in a divergent fashion." --Philip Ross 11:18, 12 March 2006 (UTC)