Week 11 - Post 1: Appeals to Emotion

In chapter ten of Critical Thinking, Epstein goes over appeals to emotions and how they are used in arguments. He states, “An appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says, roughly, you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way.” There are also several different types of appeals discussed in this chapter. Three of these appeals are appeals to pity, appeals to fear, and appeals to spite. An appeal to pity is an appeal used to get people to do something by making them feel sorry for someone. An example of such an appeal is the ASPCA commercials that show beaten and homeless animals with sad music playing in the background. These commercials are unstated claims trying to get people to donate to the organization by making them feel sorry for the animals shown in the commercial. Appeals to fear are those usually used in advertisements that are commonly used to scare people into doing something or buying something. For example, car insurance companies often show accidents taking place in their commercials before they begin discussing their low rates. Another type of appeal is the appeal to spite. Appeals to spite are those that reject an idea or action in hopes of obtaining revenge. An example of this appeal would be if one employee refused to take their co-worker’s shift because the co-worker refused to take the employee’s shift last week. The appeal to pity is the type of appeal that makes me fall for these types of arguments. When I feel sorry for people or animals, I am much more likely to give in and help them. While these are not proper ways to construct an argument, they usually prove to be fairly successful in advertisements.