rewriting neutrally. Then evaluate the argument.
I am writing this letter to complain about the stupid, ridiculous $4 fee they are trying to
impose on people using Snow Canyon [a large state park recreational area near St.
George, Utah where there had previously been no fee]. It is getting harder and harder to
find forms of recreation that don't cost money in this area. Now you have to pay $4,
even if it's just to sit on the sand for a few minutes and collect some rays.
I've never really had a problem paying $5 to get into Zion's Park [a national park
nearby], because going to Zion is an all day event. However, going to Snow Canyon is
not. It's a place you go to after work or school when you only have a couple of free
hours and a case of spring fever. Being charged for it would be comparable to charging
$4 to enter the city park.
I don't feel that my presence in Snow Canyon is costing the state any extra expense
that needs to be covered. The only facility I ever use is the road that goes through the
park. It is my understanding that the fee isn't new, but they haven't had the staff to
collect it until now. So in other words, they need the $4 to pay for the bigger staff, and
the reason they need a bigger staff is to collect the $4 (a slight case of circular logic).
It just seems like we are losing more and more freedom all the time. Next they'll
probably start charging us $4 to go on to the Sugar Loaf on the red hill. Who knows,
maybe some day they will have government officials waiting on the streets to collect
money from us every time we leave the house—to pay for the air we breathe—or has
that already happened? Shawn Williams, The Spectrum, March 24, 1996
48. Bring to class a letter to the editor. Read it to the class. Then replace all the slanters
and read it again.
F u r t h e r Study Courses on rhetoric and on advertising spend a lot of time looking
at slanters in non-argumentative persuasion.
10 Too Much
Emotion
Appeals to Emotion 191
•Exercises for Chapter 10 195
Appeals to Emotion
Emotions do and should play a role in our reasoning: We cannot even begin to make
good decisions if we don't consider their significance in our emotional life. But that
does not mean we should be swayed entirely by our emotions.
An appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says, roughly, you
should believe or do something because you feel a certain way. Often we call the
entire argument in which such a premise appears an appeal to emotion.
Here's an example from when Suzy and Tom were watching TV:
Suzy: Did you see that ad? It's so sad, I cried. That group says it will
help those poor kids. We should send them some money.
To construe this as a good argument, we need to add "If you feel sorry for poor kids,
you should give money to any organization that says it will help them." That's an
appeal to pity, and it's simply implausible, since some drug cartels help kids, too.
Compare that to what Zoe said to Dick last week:
We should give to the American Friends Service Committee. They help
people all over the world help themselves, and they don't ask those they
help whether they agree with them. They've been doing it well for nearly
a century now, and they have very low overhead: almost all the money
they get is given to those who are in need. All those people who don't
have running water or health care deserve our help. Think of those poor
kids growing up malnourished and sick. We've got enough money to
send them at least $50.
This requires an unstated premise appealing to pity, too. But it isn't just "Do it
191
192 CHAPTER 10 Too Much Emotion
because you feel sorry for someone." What's needed is something like "If you feel
sorry for people, and you have a way to help them that is efficient and morally
upright, and you have enough money to help, then you should send the organization
money." That seems plausible, though whether this is the best use of Zoe and Dick's
money needs to be addressed.
Appealing to fear is a way politicians and advertisers manipulate people. For
example, on the cover of a free three-minute video mailed to voters' homes in Las
Vegas there is a picture of a bearded young man in a sweatshirt, pointing a gun
directly at the reader with the following text:
At 14 Years Old He Stole A Car.
At 16 He Raped.
At 17 He Killed.
And He Still Doesn't Have A Record.
We Cannot Continue To Allow Violent Criminals To Terrorize Our Neighborhoods.
Las Vegas Review
Reuter News Service
Reno Gazette Journal
Journal Tuesday,
Friday, June 18, 1996
Sunday, July 14,1996
June 25,1996
Nevada Rated Most
Youth-Crime Increase
Living in Fear
Dangerous State
Alarms Officials
". . . By many
" . . . Nevada is the
"The rise in violent
measures, the threat
most dangerous state
crime young people
of youth related crime
in the nation this year
commit is the most
and its fallout are on
serious issue con-
. . . " according to an
the rise in Las Vegas
fronting the juvenile
independent midwest
Valley . . ."
system today . . ."
researchfirm.
Elect COBB Nevada State Senate
This is an argument. The unstated conclusion is "You should vote for Cobb." It is
a bad argument. The only reason it gives for electing Cobb is fear. And in this
particularly egregious example it doesn't even link the fear to the conclusion.
An appeal to fear is bad if it substitutes one legitimate concern for all others,
clouding our minds to alternatives.
Often it requires some thought to see whether an appeal to fear is good.
Consider the advertisement:
A lonely road. Your car breaks down. It's dark. Aren't you glad you
bought a Dorkler brand cellular phone?
The implicit argument here is "Because your car might break down at night on a
lonely road, you should buy a Dorkler brand cellular phone." What's needed to
make it a strong argument is a premise like "Dorkler brand cellular phones will save
you from the dangers of the night." That's not so implausible. But it isn't enough.
Appeals to Emotion 193
Also needed is "Your only consideration in deciding whether to buy this brand of
cellular phone is your concern about your safety." That's implausible.
But sometimes an appeal to fear can be the sole legitimate factor in making a
decision:
Zoe: You shouldn't drive so fast in this rain.
Dick: Why not?
Zoe: The roads are very slippery after the first rain of the season,
and we could get into a serious accident.
There's nothing wrong here. The argument appeals to Dick's fears, but appropriately
so. The unstated and quite plausible appeal to emotion is "You should slow down
driving in the rain if you are afraid of getting into a serious accident."
An appeal
to spite, the hope of revenge, is invariably rejected as bad by some
people on moral grounds. In some cultures, though, it's not only acceptable, but a
moral imperative to "get even," to preserve one's "honor." We encounter this kind of argument often enough:
Dick: Hi, Tom. What's wrong with your car?
Tom: The battery's dead. Can you help me push it? Harry will steer.
Dick: Sure.
Zoe: (whispering) What are you doing, Dick? Don't you remember
that Tom wouldn't help you fix the fence last week?
What Zoe said isn't an argument, but we can construe it as one: "You shouldn't help
Tom start his car, because he wouldn't help you last week." The premise needed to
make this a strong argument is "You shouldn't help anyone who has refused to help
you (recently)." We'll leave to you whether that's plausible.
An appeal to spite often invokes the "principle" that two wrongs make a right.
For example, when a new national monument was declared in Utah just before the
1996 presidential election, some who were opposed to it complained there was no
consultation before the decision, no "due process." Here's what the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance, strong lobbyists for the monument, said in their November
1996 Bulletin:
Q: What about due process?
A: Due process meant nothing to Utah politicians last year when they tried to
ramrod their anti-wilderness proposal down the throat of not only Utahns,
but all Americans; their intransigence only proved to the President that
rational negotiation on land protection issues in southern Utah is not possible.
An argument that calls in your debts appeals to the opposite of spite:
"You should believe or do something if you owe someone a favor." For example,
194 CHAPTER 10 Too Much Emotion
How can you go to the movies with Harry and not watch the game with
me? Don't you remember how I helped you wash your car last week?
Calling in your debts as a motive is often nothing more than milking guilt.
It isn't only the negative emotions that are played on in trying to convince.
A feel-good argument is one that appeals to our wanting to feel good about
ourselves. Yesterday Suzy said to Dr. E,
I really deserve a passing grade in your course. I know that you're a fair
grader, and you've always been terrific to everyone in the class. I admire
how you handle the class, and I've enjoyed your teaching so much that it
would be a pity if I didn't have something to show for it.
"Gee," Dr. E thinks, "I guess I should pass her . . . No, wait, she hasn't given me
any reason to change her grade." The premise that's missing is "You should give a
passing mark to anyone who thinks you're a great person." This apple polishing is
an appeal to vanity.
But not every comment on what seems to be vanity is a bad argument:
To Have and to Hold
Get healthy, shiny hold with Pantene® Pro-V® Hairspray. The pro-vitamin
formula penetrates to make your hold strong and your shine last. Now, spray
your way to all-day hold and all-day shine. With Pantene Pro-V Hairsprays.
PANTENE PRO-V For Hair So Healthy It Shines
This attempt to convince you to buy their hairspray isn't necessarily bad. It requires
an unstated premise that you want to look good with shiny, well-kept hair. That
may be true. Whether to believe the other claims, though, and whether to believe
the unstated premise that this hairspray is the best to satisfy your desire to look good,
are the real issues.
Yet sometimes invoking our wish to feel good is all that's needed. As Zoe said
to Dick:
We should go to the Zoe Austen movie tonight. I've always liked her
novels, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it, and you said it was my turn to pick.
After all, what besides feeling good is there in making a choice of which movie to
attend?
Each appeal to emotion we've looked at has a prescriptive conclusion;
each is an attempt to convince someone that he or she should do something.
An appeal to emotion in an argument with a prescriptive conclusion
can be good or can be bad. Being alert to the use of emotion helps
clarify the kinds of premises needed in such an argument, so we can
more easily analyze it.
EXERCISES for Chapter 10 195
Labeling an argument as an appeal to emotion, then, is not an analysis of the
argument, but only a helpful start to seeing whether the argument is good or bad.
Except in some cases, . . .
This is an appeal to emotion with a descriptive conclusion, an example of wishful
thinking. It's bad. Why should we believe some description of the world is true just
because we are moved by our emotions? Wanting it so doesn't make it so.
Any appeal to emotion with a descriptive conclusion is bad,
if the appeal cannot be deleted as premise.
Exercises for Chapter 10
1. Write a bad argument in favor of affirmative action whose only premises appeal to pity.
2. Find an advertisement that uses apple polishing. Is it a good argument?
3. Find an advertisement that uses an appeal to fear. Is it a good argument?
4. Make up an appeal to some emotion for the next time a traffic officer stops you.
5. Report to the class on a "calling in your debts" argument you've heard.
(Hint: Look at political speeches.) Is it a good argument?
7. Give an example of an appeal to patriotism. Is it a good argument?
(Samuel Johnson: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.")
For each of the following, decide if it is an argument. If it is, decide if it is an appeal to an
emotion, and if so, which emotion(s). Then decide whether it is a good argument.
8. Zoe: We should stop all experimentation on animals right now. Imagine, hurting
those poor doggies.
Dick: But there's no reason why we shouldn't continue experimenting with cats.
You know how they make me sneeze.
9. Vote for Senator Wong. He knows how important your concerns are.
196 CHAPTER 10 Too Much Emotion
10. Before you buy that Japanese car, ask whether you want to see some Japanese tycoon get
rich at your expense, or whether you'd prefer to see an American kid get a meal on his
plate next week.
11. Dear Dr. E,
I was very disappointed with my grade in your critical thinking course, but I'm sure
that it was just a mistake in calculating my marks. Can I speak with you this Tuesday,
right before I have lunch with my uncle, Dr. Jones, the Dean of Liberal Arts, where we
plan to discuss sexual harassment on this campus? sincerely, Wanda Vurnstik
12. Mom: Go ahead, Zoe. Live with your boyfriend, Dick. Who am I to say no?
I'm just your mother. Break my heart.
13. Sunbathing does not cause skin cancer. If it did, how could I enjoy the beach?
14. Democracy is the best form of government, otherwise this wouldn't be the greatest
country in the world.
15. Smoking can't cause cancer or I would have been dead a long time ago.
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17. Dear Senator:
Before you make up your mind on how to vote on the abortion bill, I'd like to remind
you that those who support abortion rights usually have small families. A few years
from now all my six children, and the many children of my friends, all of whom believe
abortion is morally wrong, will be voting.
18. You mean that after we flew you here to Florida, paid for your lodging, showed you a
wonderful time, all for free, you aren't going to buy a lot from us?
19. You shouldn't vote for gun control. It'll just make it easier for violent criminals to take
advantage of us.
20. Wanda: I know this diet's going to work because I have to lose 20 pounds by the end of
this month.
EXERCISES for Chapter 10 197
21. In Dr. E' s class, if a student has to miss an exam, then he or she has to petition to be
excused. If the petition is granted for a midterm, then the final counts that much more.
If the petition is denied, the student fails the exam. Here's an excuse petition from one
of his students, written before the exam. Is it a good argument? Should Dr. E grant the
petition?
October seventeenth through the twenty-first I will be out of town due to a
family function. I am aware that my philosophy midterm falls on the 17th
and, unfortunately, my flight leaves at 7 a.m. that morning. I am asking to
please be excused from the midterm.
My boyfriend of two and a half years is standing as the best man in his
brother's wedding. Being together for two years, I have become as much a
part of his family as he is. This wedding is a once in a lifetime event and I
want to be there to share it with him.
I am a 100% devoted student and would never intentionally miss an exam.