kettle logic

English

Etymology

Calque of French logique du chaudron. The expression was used by Jacques Derrida in reference to a story related by Sigmund Freud, in which a man accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition offers three conflicting arguments: that he returned the kettle undamaged; that it was already damaged when he borrowed it; and that he never borrowed it in the first place.

Noun

kettle logic (uncountable)

1. A rhetorical device involving the use of multiple arguments that are inconsistent with each other.