Thursday, July 22, 2010
Appeal To Emotion
In chapter 10 we see that appealing to emotion is described as a premise in argument that compels you to believe or do, just because you feel a certain way. I hear these kinds of arguments all the time in the news or in person. The book uses the example of politicians using fear to manipulate and control people. The example is a hypothetical video of a gun being pointed at the viewer stating that unless you vote for Cobb all sorts of crimes will happen in your neighborhood. They use a list of crimes to instill fear into the viewer. For a real life example my mom tells me "you should drive slower or you will certainly get in a car crash". Now I usually drive at the speed limit. She is implying that if I do not go slower than the speed limit I will get in a car crash, playing on my fears of getting into one, thus making me drive slower on the road.
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I thought it was great and helpful how you first started your blog on relevance and relation to your own life and how you hear the kind of arguments on appeal to emotion on a daily basis. That is very true because not only do we see and hear it, but we, ourselves act on emotion just because we feel a certain way as well. You did a good job on explaining how the book discusses the politicians using fear such as on videos, and advertisements throughout the media to manipulate and control people. They definitely go through and show a variety of crimes to make or like you said, "instill" fear to the audience.
ReplyDeleteI liked your real life example on driving and your mom trying to instill the fear in you on it. My mom does the same to me actually. Even when I am driving the speed limit, she still tells me I am going too fast and that I should go under the speed limit that way I will reduce my risk of accidents and what not. It seems in both our situations, the appeal to fear based on our appeal to emotions worked and made us drive slower.