I'm putting this into a "new discussion," because it's the only way (I'm new to THINQon, so this may be an act of pure ignorance) I know how to address people across the entire website.

The issue I want to raise occurred to me after reading posts directed to the question: are values inherent or are they learned.  It struck me that this way of raising the issue was misleading, because it used the form either/or rather than both/and.  And I'm phrasing the question: is it always incorrect to pose a question in the either/or format, and is it always right to pose it in the both/and format.  Note that I'm posing my own question in the former style, for the sake of provocation, as well as, I hope, accuracy.

I believe that it's almost always, if not simply always,  misleading to pose questions in this way. For an historical discussion of a well-known American figure who commonly used either/or rehetoric, see Joseph Ellis's biography of Thomas Jefferson.  But we all do it from time to time, to sharpen or provoke an answer. It's even been suggested that this form is built into American political discourse.  Often the wished for answer is inherent in how the question is posed, as in the way I posed my own question.  It implies its own answer.  It's therefore a tricky way to think about issues.

I suggest further that it's tricky, in addition, because it invites us into a world of black and white thinking: either this or that.  It defines out of existence the vast middle, where most answers are found.  It's often used by politicians for this reason: to persuade to one side or the other.  Often it has the quality of "when did you stop beating your mother":  hidden or not-so-hidden persuasive messages.

My major reason for arguing against this rhetorical form is the implication that the answer is all or nothing.  I'm arguing for "both/and"  because it it's a better invitation to thought.  It says that most, if not all, things are best addressed in the open-ended grey middle, as a matter of degrees, or a matter of interactions.  It reminds us that in any issues found on Pandelous, there's always room for more.  Just as we don't finish our tasks or wishes before dying, but just die when we must; we never finish an issue on THINQon (unless the sought-after answer is purely factual); we just keep eating away till we're, for the moment, sated.