By looking for the missing middleground, you put yourself into a linear paradigm, which is part and parcel of the false either-or dilemma. The whole point is to recognize thart either/or is part opf linear thinking and what you need is non-linear thinking. To go beyond opposites.
And I did not see the reconciliation or combination question, where you ask how one opposite can serve the other opposite, and vice versa. The first step is to reformulate the dilemma into two desirable options. On the one hand, we need to save the economy, and on the other hand, we need to protect the environment.Now ask the reconciliation question: How can saving the economy support environmental protection, and how can protecting the environment save the economy? You can begin to explore this by exploring the benefits of one for the other and vice versa. This is the power of asking the combination question and can lead to great creative thinking in a group. There is a whole lot of literature on dilemma reconciliation, see for example the works of Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars.
Thanks, Boudewijn. Your insight completely revolutionized my understanding of false dilemmas, revealing limitations I hadn't seen and introducing a more powerful framework I hadn't considered. I first thought about editing the article, but it deserved its own and has now been released.
By looking for the missing middleground, you put yourself into a linear paradigm, which is part and parcel of the false either-or dilemma. The whole point is to recognize thart either/or is part opf linear thinking and what you need is non-linear thinking. To go beyond opposites.
And I did not see the reconciliation or combination question, where you ask how one opposite can serve the other opposite, and vice versa. The first step is to reformulate the dilemma into two desirable options. On the one hand, we need to save the economy, and on the other hand, we need to protect the environment.Now ask the reconciliation question: How can saving the economy support environmental protection, and how can protecting the environment save the economy? You can begin to explore this by exploring the benefits of one for the other and vice versa. This is the power of asking the combination question and can lead to great creative thinking in a group. There is a whole lot of literature on dilemma reconciliation, see for example the works of Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars.
Thanks, Boudewijn. Your insight completely revolutionized my understanding of false dilemmas, revealing limitations I hadn't seen and introducing a more powerful framework I hadn't considered. I first thought about editing the article, but it deserved its own and has now been released.