An appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says you should believe or do something becuase you feel a certain way.
For example:
The ads or commerical you see of children in third world countries who need our help by donating. Usually when people see those kinds of things they feel different types of emotions and then usually donate or do something about it.
There are different aspect to appeal of emotions such as;
- appealing to fear
- appeal to spite
- a feel-good argument
Appealing to fear is something that is very interesting to me because we see it everywhere around us; tv, magazines, stores and much more. This is a way politicians and advertisers manipulate people.
Consider this example:http://www.daltonator.net/durandal/creationism/fallacies.shtml
EXAMPLE
"To deny the truth of Creationism is to deny the Word of God Himself. If you don't accept God, you will be condemned to Hell to suffer for eternity."
No logic. No argument. No reason. No intelligence. Just bigotry and self-righteousness.
HOW TO SPOT
When someone threatens you with the dangerous consequences of not accepting their point of view, they are engaging in an appeal to fear. This is not a hard one to spot.
HOW TO COUNTER
Simply point out that your opponent is engaging in a logical fallacy, and obviously has no other recourse but to try and scare everyone into his point of view.
TRY THIS ONE:
You know, Professor Smith, I really need to get an A in this class. I'd like to stop by during your office hours later to discuss my grade. I'll be in your building anyways, visiting my father. He's your dean, by the way. I'll see you later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a really good post because it uses multiple examples and walks you step by step through the appeal to emotion process. I also liked the god example. I see this all the time, like "god will curse you if you don't repent" and stuff like that. I even had a highly religious teacher in 7th grade constantly tell students that if they cursed they would be damned. So yeah a lot of religions appeal to your emotion and some of the negative stuff they say will happen to you is really a turn off in my opinion. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a strong statement of how to describe appeal to emotion. The one thing that sticked out to me was when the statement mention how denying the truth to creation is like denying God himself and that those who condemn him will be put into hell. This phrase shows an example of setting a point out to the public. I also enjoy how appeal to fear is the one that sticks out. This type of appeal is very common to everyone where they always fear anything nowadays due to media and other entertainment. Appeal of fear is something that people deal with on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!! I really enjoyed reading through your example of different types of appeals to emotion. I like how you elaborated on the different types of appeals to emotion like more specifically appeal to fear or a feel-good argument. I found it very helpful that you included ways to spot and how to counter appeals to emotion. It is very true that anytime someone tries to scare you into their point of view they are using an appeal to emotion. Great job on explaining this topic, I commend your cleverness and wit. It is very simple to understand this topic after reading your post.
ReplyDelete