Catch-22 (logic) - Situations With Logical Similarities To A Catch-22

Situations With Logical Similarities To A Catch-22

• Begging the question
• Cadmean victory – A victory leading to one's own ruin
• Game of Chicken – Two participants desire a positive outcome by taking an action, yet if taken by both the result is devastatingly negative.
• Chicken or the egg – a seemingly unbreakable cycle of causation, which has an unknown origin.
• Circular reasoning
• Cornelian dilemma – a choice between actions which will all have a detrimental effect on the chooser or on someone they care for.
• Deadlock – in computing, when two processes reach a standstill or impasse, each waiting for the other to finish.
• Deal with the Devil – a cultural motif related to society, morals and religion, best portrayed in Faust, in which a dangerous bargain is struck between a person and Satan, with the human soul in eternal damnation as payment.
• Double bind – a forced choice between two logically conflicting demands.
• False dilemma – a situation in which only two alternatives are considered, when in fact there are additional options
• Gift of the Magi – Where two people in love with each other sell their belongings to buy gifts for each other, only to end up giving gifts related to the belonging they have sacrificed. (i.e. A man sells a pocket watch to buy a brush for his wife. The wife had sold her long beautiful hair to buy a chain for the man's pocket watch.)
• Hobson's choice – the choice between taking an option and not taking it.
• Kobayashi Maru – a scenario involving a choice between death of civilians or of the civilians and the officers who try to save them.
• The Lady, or the Tiger? – a short story involving a princess who must make a decision in a no-win situation.
• Lesser of two evils principle – a choice between two undesirable outcomes.
• Necessary Evil – anything which, despite being considered to have undesirable qualities, is preferable to its absence or alternative.
• Morton's Fork – a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives.
• Mu - a question that is founded on incorrect or irrelevant assumptions.
• No-win situation – real choices exist, but no choice leads to success.
• Paradox – a statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation which defies intuition.
• Social trap - a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole
• Sophie's Choice – a choice between two equally beloved entities, one of which must be destroyed to preserve the existence of the other.
• Vicious circle
• The Captain of Köpenick
• Winner's curse
• Zugzwang