# Continuum fallacy

*Also called: Sorites, line drawing fallacy*

- **Cluster:** False choices and ranges — Options and spectrums squeezed out of shape
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/continuum/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/continuum.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Denying a real distinction because no exact boundary can be drawn between its ends.

## In the wild

> There is no exact line for baldness, so no one is bald.

## How to answer it

Point to a clear case at each end. Vague borders do not erase clear centres.

## Origin and naming

Also called the fallacy of the beard or line-drawing fallacy, and tied to the sorites paradox — 'sorites' from the Greek word for heap. The puzzle is attributed to Eubulides of Miletus in the fourth century BCE: take one grain from a heap and it is still a heap, so keep going, and the heap is never not a heap. The fallacy is the confident use of that puzzle to deny distinctions we manage perfectly well in practice.

## More places it shows up

- There is no exact salary at which someone becomes rich, so talking about a wealth tax is meaningless.
- You cannot say at which sentence a report becomes too long, therefore length limits are arbitrary and unenforceable.
- No precise minute separates a late submission from an on-time one, so every deadline is fiction.
- No single day marks when a side project became a startup, so calling ours a startup is pure poetry.

## How to spot it

- The speaker keeps asking where exactly the line is, as if the lack of an exact answer won the point by default.
- Real, clearly distinct cases at the two ends are acknowledged and then quietly ignored.
- The demand for a perfect boundary is never applied to the distinctions the speaker actually relies on.

## Nearby

- [Nirvana fallacy](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/nirvana.md)
- [Middle ground](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/middle-ground.md)
- [Slippery slope](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/slippery-slope.md)

## Read more

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox)
- [The Fallacy Files](https://www.fallacyfiles.org/fallheap.html)

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From fallacy.wiki — a bilingual field guide to 91 logical fallacies, published by phi holdings. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse freely with attribution to fallacy.wiki.