Rhetoric 2018 Taylor Francis Rhetoric The art of

Rhetoric © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Rhetoric • The art of persuasion • A piece of argumentation that attempts to persuade especially by means other than the presentation of good evidence. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Rhetoric vs. Logic • Logic is aimed at truth. • Rhetoric is aimed at inducing belief. • ‘Rhetoric’ is usually a pejorative term among philosophers. • For our purposes, rhetoric not as a means of manipulating others but as an obstacle to truth. • Rhetoric: nonlogical (nonrational) modes of persuasion. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Aristotle • People are more easily persuaded if they think that something has been established by argument • even if no real argument has been given. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Influencing, bypassing reason • Motivated inference: • emotional investment (pro or con) leads to selective collection, interpretation of evidence. • Motivated intuition: • a claim just seems right, without our even thinking we have evidence for it. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Abuses of emotive rhetoric • Creating negative (or positive) associations with a claim tends to bypass reason, make that claim seem false (or true). • Abusive ad hominem: “he says that p, but he’s a child molester. ” • Argumentum ad Hitlerum: “you know who else believed p? Hitler!” • ad populum: “everyone else believes p, so p. ” © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Abuses of emotive rhetoric • Appeal to force (argumentum ad baculum): using threats to produce agreement. • Often by intimidation: “anyone who disagrees is obviously an idiot!” • Appeal to pity (argumentum ad misericordiam): invoking pity/guilt to produce belief: “this accusation has ruined my client’s reputation, his marriage, and his job prospects” • is no evidence that the accusation is false. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Language of Arguments © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Emotionally charged language • Rhetoric often attempts to bypass reasoning by direct appeal to emotions. • Use of connotation to sway audience • “It’s hard to be against a bill that says that once a baby’s heart is beating, you shouldn’t take his life. ” © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Emotionally charged language • Rhetoric often attempts to bypass reasoning by direct appeal to emotions. • Use of connotation to sway audience: • “It’s hard to be against a bill that says that once a baby’s heart is beating, you shouldn’t take his life. ” © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Emotionally charged language • ‘Pro-life’ vs. ‘pro-choice’ • ‘Anti-choice extremist’ vs. ‘abortionloving baby-killer’ • ‘Baby’ vs. ‘parasite’ © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Converse: euphemism • “Product of conception” rather than “fetus” • “Would you force a woman to have sex with you if you could get away with it? ” • 50% said yes ! • “Would you rape a woman if you could get away with it? ” • 15% said yes ! © 2018 Taylor & Francis

• “Terrorists should be punished. ” • “Freedom fighters should be punished. ” • Emotional connotation sometimes depends on audience. • “progressive” at Huffington Post • “progressive” on Glenn Beck show © 2018 Taylor & Francis

• Is neutral language possible? • Is neutral language desirable? © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Sloganeering and cliche • Well-worn sayings with unclear meanings make you feel like an argument has been given. • “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. ” • “You need to think outside the box. ” • “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. ” • “You get what you pay for. ” © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Vivid example • Unfortunately, often more convincing than actual statistics due to availability heuristic. • Fallacy of misleading vividness: allowing the vividness of an example to influence your belief in a statistical or probabilistic claim. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Vagueness vs. ambiguity • Vague: imprecise; having poorly defined boundaries. • bald • short • Ambiguous: having two or more distinct, nonoverlapping, meanings. • bank • flying planes can be dangerous (amphiboly) © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Fallacy of equivocation • Using ambiguous term in two different ways. • My nephew is still just a kid. • A kid is a baby goat. • My nephew is a baby goat. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Fallacy of equivocation • Using ambiguous term in two different ways. • My nephew is still just a kid. • A kid is a baby goat. • My nephew is a baby goat. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Equivocation? • A 1 -day-old embryo is a living human being. • It is morally wrong to kill a living human being, except in self-defense. • It is morally wrong to kill a 1 -day-old embryo. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Some pro-choice people would only accept these premises if the key term shifts metabolically meaning in the two premises. Equivocation? active human tissue • A 1 -day-old embryo is a living human being. • It is morally wrong to kill a living human being, except in self-defense. • It is morally wrong to kill a 1 -day-old embryo. full-fledged, autonomous person © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Definitions • Necessary and sufficient conditions that capture the meaning of a term. • Must do justice to already existing meaning. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Two exceptions • Stipulative definition: introduction of new term, or technical use of old term. • Avoid misunderstandings, etc. • Persuasive definition: sneak extraneous features, often emotive, into definition. • e. g. , “homosexual” means “having unnatural desire for those of same sex. ” © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Related fallacy • Fallacy of many questions: • e. g. , “When did you stop beating your wife? ” • i. e. , p and q, or p and not-q? • Presupposes p, without giving opponent chance to deny it. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

Fallacies vs. persuasive (rhetorical) tricks • Fallacy: mistake in reasoning, argument that fails to support conclusion. • Rhetorical trick: doesn’t attempt to offer argument. • bypass reasoning altogether, manipulate belief formation by engaging the intuitive processor • If you want to be in charge of your belief, make sure the conscious rulefollower is engaged. © 2018 Taylor & Francis