Concept · Cognitive Bias: Informal fallacies of ambiguity

Suppressed correlative

Origin: Modern formalization

Biological Parallel

Redefining all species as 'invasive at some timescale' suppresses the invasive/native distinction—the suppressed correlative fallacy. By expanding 'invasive' to include natural range shifts over millennia, the term loses practical meaning. Yes, all species migrated from somewhere eventually—but that doesn't make rabbits in Australia equivalent to eucalyptus expanding its range over 10,000 years. The fallacy: eliminating useful distinctions by redefining categories to be universal. If everything is X, nothing is X. Categories exist to distinguish, not encompass.