Saturday, November 6, 2010
Appeal to Spite
An appeal that I found interesting that we have not discussed yet is "appeal to spite." This is interesting to me before appealing to spite is "the hope of revenge." This idea revolves around the idea of getting even with someone. Appeals to spite is also when someone will try to attempt certain things during an argument such as taking advantage of existing feelings of bitterness. The example given in the book for this concepts revolves around someone name Tom and someone named Dick. Tom's car is not working and Tom is asking Dick to help push his car. Another person name Zoe is asking Dick why he is helping Tom push his car when the week before, Tom didn't help Dick when help was needed. The premise that makes this argument strong is not helping someone who has refused to help you recently. Appeal to spite "often invokes the "principle" that two wrongs make a right." (Epstein pg. 193.)
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An appeal to spite seems to be very common in everyday life. It has to happen at least once in life where there is always that certain somebody who did not do a favor for you or help you out when you needed them, so when they do need help with something there is no incentive for you to help them out. I like this example that you used and I also had an example of appeal to spite, in which one guy wants to nominate his teammate for an award. However, he is reminded that that guy did not vote for him last year, so why should he vote for him in the first place.
ReplyDeleteHello there, I agree with both of you guys. I think it is human nature to want to hold something against someone. I also liked how pulled out the strong part of the argument which also shows the appeal to spite. Just because one person held something against that person, they argued against them due to an emotional appeal. But in my opinion I think this is a very selfish way to argue against somebody. Just because of a past action, they have been immediately discredited. This scenario also reminds me of something that we learned a few chapters back.
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