fallacies Flashcards
pathos appeal
- emotional appeal
- relies on feelings / instincts / opinions
- essence = passion
ethos appeal
- ethical appeal
- writers character is basis for appeal
logos appeal
- logical appeal
- writer presents a series of reasonable observations and a conclusion to establish reliable claim or position
how to counter argue
- know opponents argument / strongest points
- writer anticipates objections and opposing arguments
establishing credibility
- reasonably define issue
- avoid misrepresenting opponents point of view
- authoritative sources / well-reasoned/supported argument is effective
- qualify / limit your argument
define fallacies
errors in reasoning / logic
define / give example of propaganda
- systematic spreading of information, especially in a biased or misleading way in order to promote a political cause or pov
- EX: political speeches, commercials, art, tv, movies, newspaper, magazine articles, and everyday conversations
pathos fallacy
-like a sob story, uses emotion to distract the audience from the facts and to manipulate the audience into drawing unjustified conclusions
EX: the thousands of baby seals killed in the Exxon Valdez oil spill have shown us oil isn’t a reliable energy source
oversimplification
provides easy answers to complicated questions, often by appealing to emotions rather than logic
red herrings
misleading / unrelated evidence to support a conclusion
scare tactics
try to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences
ad populum
- AKA bandwagon appeals
- encourage an audience to agree with the writer because everyone else is doing it so
- “to the crowd”
glittering generalities
emotionally-appealing words that are meant to evoke action
false authority
asks audiences to agree with the assertion of a writer based simply on his / her character or the authority of another person / institution who may not be fully qualified to offer that assertion
using authority instead of evidence
- AKA testimonials
- occurs when someone offers personal authority as proof
failing to accept the burden of proof
- AKA assertion
- the assertion of a claim without presenting a reasoned argument to support it
- propagandist rarely argues
- just makes bold statements
guilt by association
- AKA transfer
- calls a person’s character into question by examining the character of that person’s associates
ad hominem
- AKA name calling
- arguments that attack a person’s character rather than that person’s reasoning
lying
major tool of the propagandist
plain folks
approach that politicians use to make a candidate seem like a everyday guy or gal in order to make the candidate seem more trustworthy / credible
hasty generalization
draw general and premature conclusions from scanty evidence
faulty causality
- arguments confuse chronology with causation
- one event can occur after another without being caused by it
stacked evidence
- AKA card stacking
- AKA slanting
- represents only one side of the issue, thus distorting the issue
circular reasoning
- AKA begging the question
- occurs when a writer simply restates the claim in a different way
repetition
technique that is used to drum the message into the target audience’s subconscious by repeating key words or phrases over and over until resistance to the message weakens, and the target audience eventually accepts it
pinpointing the enemy
when a person or a propagandist often tries to find an enemy - real or imagined - to attack
rhetorical questions
when a person or propagandist peppers his/her speeches with questions which he intends to answering himself not wanting listeners to answer them because they do not want the audience to think for themselves
