trilemmas

Noun

trilemma (plural trilemmas or trilemmata)

1. A circumstance in which a choice must be made between three options that seem equally undesirable.
   • With all these dilemmas and trilemmas crowding the mind, if one did not know better, one might be tempted to doubt whether any such versions were ever made at all.1853 March, “Article I. The Mode of Baptism.”, in The True Baptist, volume I, number 3, Jackson, Miss.: Published by the editor, →OCLC, page 76
2. A situation in which a choice must be made among three desirable options, only two of which are possible at the same time.
   • At the most general level, policymakers in open economies face a macroeconomic trilemma: 1. to stabilize the exchange rate; 2. to enjoy free international capital mobility; 3. to engage in a monetary policy oriented toward domestic goals. Because only two out of the three objectives can be mutually...2004 March, Maurice Obstfeld, Jay C. Shambaugh, Alan M. Taylor, “The Trilemma in History: Tradeoffs among Exchange Rates, Monetary Policies, and Capital Mobility”, in Econometrics Laboratory...
3. An argument containing three alternatives, jointly exhaustive either under any condition(s) or under all condition(s) consistent with the universe of discourse of that argument, that each imply the same conclusion.
   • It has been remarked as a characteristic of the late Sir Robert Peel, that in introducing his measures to the House of Commons, he often used the trilemma. "Three courses are before us—to go backward, to stand still, to go forward. We cannot go backward; we cannot stand still; we must, then, go...1851, [James William Gilbart], Logic for the Million: A Familiar Exposition of the Art of Reasoning, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, →OCLC, part IV (The Points of Reasoning), section V...