Proving Too Much

CORE DEFINITION

A form of refutation, related to reductio ad absurdum, in which an argument is rejected because its logic, if accepted, would also support conclusions that are clearly unacceptable. The core proposition is that an argument which proves more than its proponent intends cannot be sound, since the same reasoning licenses conclusions the proponent would reject. The key qualification is that the parallel case must be genuinely parallel; a comparison that differs in a relevant condition refutes nothing, and the argument's own stated qualifications must be respected rather than stripped out.