ENGLISH

Appeal to Pity: Argumentum Ad Misericordiam

By Douglas N. Walton

Book information

Publisher
State University of New York Press
Year
1997
ISBN
9780585062198, 9780791434628, 0791434621, 0791434613, 9780791434611
LCC
BC175 .W32 1997
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
111 kB (113689 bytes)
Series
SUNY Series in Logic and Language
Edition
1st
Pages
0\0
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

Appeal to pity has frequently been exploited with amazing success as a deceptive tactic of argumentation, so much so that it has traditionally been treated as a fallacy. Using a case study method, the author examines examples of appeals to pity and compassion in real arguments in order to classify, analyze, and evaluate the types of arguments used in these appeals. Among the cases studied are the controversial use of "poster kids" in the Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy and the "baby incubators story" deployed by a public relations firm to influence the decision to send U.S. forces into Kuwait during the Gulf War. In addition to the analyses of these and other case studies, this book provides, for the first time, precise guidelines and useful criteria with which to identify, analyze, and evaluate instances of the ad misericordiam argument.

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