Asserting that a first step must lead to an extreme end without establishing the mechanism.
Not fallacious where the causal chain is actually demonstrated. The test is whether a mechanism is supplied linking each step, or whether the argument relies on the emotional weight of the endpoint.
In practice
- A proposal to record meeting attendance is opposed as the first step towards surveillance, and nobody names the step in between.
- A lawyer arguing that a precedent will be extended sets out the three cases in which courts have already extended it, which is the same shape of argument and not a fallacy.
- Standing
- Not fallacious where the causal chain is actually demonstrated.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Decision-making & Reasoning
- Essay
- The catalogue of predictable errors