Having done the second group assignment, where in we used PETA as our organization of choice, I’ve realized how many organizations use the appeal to emotion to win their viewers and supporters. According to Epstein, appeal to emotion is when the person feels entitled to do something because of how they felt. The most that affects me is usually the type of appeal that we see in appeal to pity. However, the appeal to pity can be quite misleading since we tend to focus on how we feel about the situation rather than focusing on the claims and premises that they are arguing for. For example:
I feel like I don’t want to eat for a week after seeing the commercial of kids needing our help in Ethiopia- especially how we’re so abundant in food here in the U.S. All we can do, really, is to send them money for donation.
Unfortunately, for this situation, we do not know if the person stating this might need the money more for something else than sending their money for donation.
We did the same with our assignment. PETA uses a lot appeals to emotion. The same happens to mean when someone appeals to pity. It is one that is misleading because it can cloud one’s judgement when making decisions. It distracts some one from the claim being made. Your example is also very good. I feel that your example was good because it discusses the situation in which your example is set. By knowing the premises and the claim it makes the argument valid. It is also a good example to what an argument that appeals to emotion looks like.
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