---
id:
aliases: []
title: Ambiguity
tags:
  - authorship/original
  - destiny/permanent
  - status/incomplete
  - topic/ambiguity
  - type/encyclopedia-entry
dg-publish: true
---
# Ambiguity

Not to be confused with [[uncertainty]].

## Common Fallacies

### Reification Fallacy

> [!quote] [Reification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(fallacy))
> **Reification** ... is a fallacy of ambiguity,
> ...it is the error of treating something that is not concrete...
> as a concrete thing.

See ["the map is not the territory"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map-territory_relation "Map-territory relation").

> [!aside]
> This one is very common among my peers in estimating.
> The problem with fallacies, of course,
> is that you can't simply say "Reification fallacy, booyah".
> If some one is overgeneralizing,
> they likely just have a different understanding of the term.
> Certainty of definition only occurs with some quorum,
> and I'd argue most of [[construction-estimating|ours]] don't meet it,
> and that the choice of any term over another ought to be based on utility.
>
> > Note also that a term's definition can be certain ~~on some axis~~,
> > but ambiguous ~~on another~~.
> > See ["I know it when I see it"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it)
> > which, as far as I'm concerned, is a perfectly legitimate definition.

### Equivocation Fallacy

[Equivocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation "Equivocation")

The misleading use of a word with more than one meaning

### Composition Fallacy

[Composition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition "Fallacy of composition")

Assuming a whole has a property because its parts have that property

### Division Fallacy

[Division](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_division "Fallacy of division")

Assuming parts have a property because the whole has that property

### Category Mistake

> [!quote] [Category mistake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_mistake)
> An example is a person learning that the game of cricket involves team spirit,
> and after being given a demonstration of each player's role,
> asking which player performs the "team spirit".

All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.

#### Overgeneralization via Hyperspecification

Or "inappropriate synecdoche[^1]"

[^1]: **synecdoche:** Using the name of a part to refer to the whole, or vice versa.

Much of my issue with terminology
can be blamed on **overgeneralization via hyperspecification**,

[Proprietary eponyms](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/proprietary_eponym)
(synonym: [genericized trademark](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/genericized_trademark))
are usually[^2] an example of such,
and are prominent in electrical construction.[^3]

[^2]: I'm not a complete pedant, Cadweld is a perfectly unambiguous substitution.
    "Caddy", "Hilti", and "Vitalink" are my real complaints,
    where the word only gets me marginally closer
    to creating a concrete image in my head.

    The general acceptance of "band-aid"
    compared to the rejection of "coke"
    may be related.

[^3]: See [Database of American Proprietary Eponyms](https://www.searstower.org/rkrause/brands.html)
    for examples.