Either-or reduction

Either-or reduction: A regulating structure of normative thinking which assumes the logical form of p or not-p (“the excluded middle”), thereby eliminating the range of other value possibilities including degrees of each and mutual inclusions – – for example, assuming that a society is either capitalist or socialist, that an ethic is either consequentialist or deontological, or that a phenomenon is either good or bad.

See also Dualism.

Source: What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11.