An appeal to emotion is basically when someone makes an argument because they actually have certain feelings on the certain topic. This means that it is prescriptive because it comes from opinion and someone’s personal view instead of a fact based argument. There are several different types of appeal to emotion such as appeal to fear, pity, spite and vanity. The one that caught my attention here is appeal to spite. This is basically where someone is holding onto a grudge and uses that in their argument. I think this is personally wrong but people seem to do it often. An example of this would be:
"I would save you from drowning Phil, but last week you snitched me out to the cops."
This shows that the person making the statement is holding something personal against Phil, therefore, he will not help him. This is morally wrong and I can’t stand when people do things like this. Hope this helps ;P
I actually completely agree with your post. I also chose to talk about appeal to spite and also believe it to be morally wrong. I like your example; it's simple and straight to the point. It is very easy to understand and explains what an appeal to spite is. I also believe, as you said, that it is morally wrong to use this kind of appeal. I found it kind of sad in a way. I don't really understand why people would want to get on a lower level and seek revenge from someone who did something bad in the first place. What I mean is that if you hurt me, and I hurt you back, first off what is the point, and second, when does it stop? I overall think that appeal to spite is wrong.
ReplyDeleteGood post :)
Elsie-