thank you for arguing chapter 14-18
innuendo
(n.) a hint, indirect suggestion, or reference (often in a derogatory sense)
tools for telling how much you should trust someone's sincerity and trustworthiness
1. apply the needs test (disinterest): are the persuader's needs your needs? whose needs is the person meeting? 2. check the extremes (virtue): how does he describe the opposing argument? how close is the middle-of-the-road to yours?
3 identifiers associated with logical fallacies
1. bad proof 2. wrong # of choices 3. disconnect between proof and conclusion
4 questions to determine if there is fallacy in an argument
1. does the proof hold up? 2. am I given the right # of choices? 3. does the proof lead to the conclusion? 4. who cares?
2 things to see if something is practical wisdom
1. first you want to hear "that depends" 2. then you want to hear a tale of comparable experience
fouls of argument
1. foul of the wrong tense 2. foul of the right way 3. foul of the innuendo 4. foul of the threat 5. foul of the utter stupidity
8 rhetorical out-of-bounds
1. switching tenses-away from the future 2. inflexible insistence on the rules-using the voice of god, sticking to your guns, refusing to hear the other side 3. humiliation-an argument that sets out only to debase someone, not to make a choice 4. innuendo 5. threats 6. nasty language or signs 7. utter stupidity 8. truthiness-the refusal to believe anything that fails to match your opinion
6 steps to evaluating ethos
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most important trait of practical wisdom
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false dilemma
A fallacy of oversimplification that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when in fact more options are available.
Slippery Slope
A fallacy that assumes that taking a first step will lead to subsequent steps that cannot be prevented
Practical Wisdom (Phronesis)
Craft; audience must share you ideas or beliefs on a subject as well as believe that you are capable of making the correct decision in that moment
reductio ad absurdum
Reducing an argument to absurdity
Disconnect between proof and conclusion
Results in the tautology (in which the proof and the conclusion are identical), the red herring (a sneaky distraction), or the wrong ending (in which the proof fails to lead to the conclusion).
a state of character
Rhetorical virtue that exists only during the argument itself and it adapts to the audience's expectations
misinterpreting the evidence
The examples don't support the conclusion
lying in a mean
To Aristotle, the sweet spot of every question lies in the middle between extremes. Determine the middle of the road in any question. If the persuaders use extreme terms --- "radical," "cruel", "abusive" --- then beware of their advice. Extremists usually describe the middle course as extreme.
concerned with choice
Virtue comes out of the choices the persuader makes.
False Analogy
When two cases are not sufficiently parallel to lead readers to accept a claim of connection between them.
"there's virtue in moderation"
You get virtue by choosing the moderate choice between two extremes in the audiences opinion
virtue according to aristotle
a state of character concerned with choice lying in a mean
ignorance as proof
asserting that the lack of examples proves something
Chanticleer fallacy
assumes that if one thing follows another, the first thing caused the second one
complex cause
assumes there is a single, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a # of causes (more than one cause is to blame, but only one gets the rap)
tools for bullies
audience targeting ironic love virtue pose aggressive interest
purpose of argument
be persuasive not "correct"
fallacy of power
because the guy in charge wants it, it must be good
right way
closely related to avoiding the future, because it sticks to values-covering Right and Wrong, Who's In and Who's Out-instead of the main topic of deliberative argument-the advantageous
bad proof
consists of 3 sins: false comparison (lumping examples into the wrong categories), bad example, and ignorance as proof (asserting that the lack of examples proves something)
wrong number of choices
covers one essential sin, the false choice
basic principles of ethos
disinterest virtue practical wisdom
7 logical sins
false comparison bad example ignorance as proof tautology false choice red herring wrong ending
fallacy of antecedent
if it never happened before it will never happen, or it happened once so it will happen again
ironic love
kind of irony works best when your audience can see through it
Appeal to Popularity
legitimizes your choice by claiming that others have chosen it
how see if ethos is accurate
look for disconnects
false comparison
lumping examples into the wrong categories
utter stupidity
most common stupidity in argument, aside from the gratuitous insult, in the arguer's failure to recognize his own logical fallacies
false choice
offering just 2 choices when more are actually available, or merging 2 or 3 issues into one
tautology
proof and conclusion are identical, unnecessary repetition
Hasty Generalization
reaching a conclusion without adequate supporting evidence
aggressive interest
respond to a political bully by feigning sympathetic curiosity while continuously asking for definitions, details, and sources (best tool to use against a political bully)
virtue pose
show yourself to be the better person. do this by showing little negative emotion. invite a conversation and seem slightly disappointed in the bully when he refuses
wrong tense
straying from future tense
the red herring
switches issues in mid argument to throw the audience off the scent
straw man
switches topics to one that's easier to fight
many questions
two or more issues get merged into one, so that a conclusion proves another conclusion
Fallacy of Ignorance
what we cannot prove, cannot exist
audience targeting
when you're under attack, search out your persuadable audience