The specific appeal to emotion that really caught my interest was the appeal to spite because I never considered it to be a type of fallacy or an appeal to emotion. Appeal to spite is when someone tries to win an argument by bring up a past event that cause them bitterness or spite. This causes a poor argument because more than likely the two situations are unrelated. I see this fallacy multiple times a day especially in today’s world where it seems like we always have to be even with each other. It goes back to an old saying two wrongs do not make a right. This is more a moral judgment than an argument. An example I see frequently is at my work when someone needs their shift covered. The reasoning is always Alex didn’t cover my shift on Friday night so I will not help him do the inventory count. This is something I am now aware of and am going to limit the appeal to spite in my reasoning.
Thanks for your explanation on the appeal to spite. After reading, I fully understand what this type of appeal does in our arguments. I totally agree, these type of appeals can be heard of in our everyday conversations. Many try to make something sound "right" because of something that did or didn't happen in the past. It's like a type a chain reaction. This appeal is like the consequence of an event. I can totally relate to your example except at home with other siblings when I was younger. I remember at times I would ask my older brother if I could have some of his snack and he wouldn’t like to share and in the future when I would have something he wanted, I always told him he couldn’t have any. Thank you so much for writing, I enjoyed reading. :)
ReplyDeleteYou gave a good example of appeal to spite and how it is used in every day situations. An appeal to spite is often an excuse we give ourselves to avoid doing something, as you said helping Alex do an inventory count. An appeal to spite might be an attempt to teach the person to help you out if the also want to be helped, but also thinking if they use appeal to spite after you didnt help them out because they didnt help you out on a past event, we will all be working by ourselves because of the endless appeals to spite
ReplyDeleteGreat job on explaining the appeal to spite. I also found this topic very interesting as well just because of the different ways it is used. Many people refer to this appeal as bad because it focuses on revenge. Your example was very clear and explained the topic to its full degree. I agree with what Tarin said as well. Just because someone did wrong to you doesn't mean you need to do wrong to them. Appeal to spite is used everyday within our society. I also see it a lot in college with students in the classrooms who pick on each other.
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