Listening to your parents?

A (false) dilemma

Not every argument you make can be as strong as you have intended it to be. Other arguments are deliberately false since you know that the view you are upholding is unfeasible (an intentional fallacy).

Some of these fallacies are more wide-known than others, but lately, I stumbled upon a new example of the false dilemma. Whether this "false dilemma" was actually in use by the proponents, is unknown. However, it is clear from the rest of the text that Gellius adhered to the middle position so he could make his argument stronger by weakening those of his opponents. Anyway, it may be useful when you argue against your own parents.

Earum una est: omnia, quae pater imperat, parendum; altera est: in quibusdam parendum, quibusdam non obsequendum; tertia est: nihil necessum esse patri obsequi et parere. Haec sententia quoniam primore aspectu nimis infamis est, super ea prius, quae dicta sunt, dicemus. "Aut recte" inquiunt "imperat pater aut perperam. Si recte imperat, non, quia imperat, parendum, sed quoniam id fieri ius est, faciendum est; si perperam, nequaquam scilicet faciendum, quod fieri non oportet." Deinde ita concludunt: "numquam est igitur patri parendum, quae imperat."  - Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 2.7.

The first view among them asserts: you should listen to everything that your father tells you; the second holds: you should listen in some instances, but sometimes you shouldn't follow what is said; the third purports: it is totally unnecessary to listen and follow what your father says. Since we understand from the first look of it that this last view is disgraceful, we shall enfold the earlier discussion on it. "A father", its proponents argue,  "advises something either correctly or incorrectly. If what he says is correct, you would listen to it, not for his advice, but it is the right thing to do; if what he says is incorrect, you would obviously never act on it since it is incorrect to perform." Hence they conclude: "in neither case is it, thus, necessary to listen to what your father says."