Questions tagged [rhetoric]
the practice of effective persuasive speech/argumentation
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"can-do" vs. "can-explain" fallacy
Is there a name for the fallacy where, if someone is not able to explain how he or she does something, it is taken as a proof that he/she can't actually do it?
For example, I once claimed in an ...
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Is there a name for the widespread logical fallacy in which you prove your point by 'eliminating' anyone who contradicts you?
I've encountered this relentlessly in my life. You offer proof that someone is wrong, or even simply state something more obvious than the sun that they don't like, they ban you or do something else ...
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Is "explaining away" something without offering details ever justified? How detailed should an explanation be to be considered valid?
In a recent question I asked if it was epistemologically sound to consider alternative theories of consciousness to explain the visual phenomena that people blind from birth experience during a near-...
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What kind of rhetorical device is 'splaining?
It is quite common for people to respond to an issue or question with the first thing that comes to mind, framed as a convincing explanation. When it appears to be a self-serving or unwarranted ...
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How should the difference between rhetoric and sophistry be characterized when the "criterion" of truth is consensus?
According to Plato/Aristotle, rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing to persuade another of the truth of a proposition. Sophistry, on the other hand, came to be known as a ...
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Word-Pairing Rhetorical Tactic
I am looking for a name referring to a rhetoric/propaganda tactic in which words are paired together to change perceptions? For example, if I said, "a controversial speaker is giving a lecture at ...
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How to discuss subjects with people who are convinced by emotion, not by reason?
Sometimes I must discuss a subject with someone who has an emotional, not necessarily reasonable, connection to a subject. How can one discuss a subject or convince a person who has an emotional ...
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Rebuttal from first principles as a type of refutation?
There is an intriguing paper by Easwaran on types of refutations:
Easwaran, Kenny. Rebutting and undercutting in mathematics.
Epistemology, 146-162, Philos. Perspect., 29, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden,
...
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Provenance of 'malicious joke' "He has not interpreted my words as I intended. For I intended that there be no counterexamples."
I doubt this could be where I originally came across this quip/joke, but a google search found it in footnote #2 of [1]. The footnote reads:
2 Compare the malicious joke: 'Mr. Z claims to have found ...
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What do you call a "false corollary" or leap in logic?
If I make a provocative statement like:
I recommend South American chocolate to professional chefs.
Some readers infer what I currently think of as "false corollaries":
Professional chefs ...
user63845
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What kind of a logical fallacy is giving an example from the past - in order to justify present unjustice?
I was wondering what kind of fallacy is giving an example that occurred in the past, and thus saying we don't need to worry about the present as the same or worse happened in the past. I would like to ...
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How to reframe a question or statement in good faith?
Attempting to have a philosophical discussion with someone acting in bad faith is annoying. You might pose a statement or question, only for them to refute it with an irrelevant detail (sometimes ...
user63845
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Does this argument qualify as whataboutism?
(Moved from Politics.SE)
Alice and Bob are two students who are habitual cheaters.
Alice to Bob: You really should stop cheating on your exams.
Bob to Alice: I'll stop cheating if you stop cheating ...
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“Give something a name, and it becomes a thing.”
A colleague once made a comment to the effect of, "If you give something a name, it becomes a thing."
Is that a quote, or similar to a quote, from some philosophical work. If so, what is the ...
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Proper name for "affirming the common ground" fallacy / rhetorical technique?
I'm trying to find the name for this form—I don't know if it'd rightly be called a "fallacy", or just a "rhetorical technique"—where you affirm or reiterate non-disputed premises ...
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Providing a logical rebuttal to "What's the harm?"-type questions
I have a manager at work who often comes up with shortsighted ideas and then expects his staff to adopt them. On occasions, my colleagues (his staff) will suggest improvements to his ideas that offer ...
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Searching for name of this logical fallacy: presuming a consensus
I recently encountered multiple instances of this kind of fallacy, but could not nail down its name or which group of fallacy that it belongs to. It bothers me enough to create a new account to ask ...
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Is there a logical fallacy for falsely dismissing criticism as snobbery?
From Richard Nixon to Spiro Agnew to todays Marvel fans, there seems to be a particular penchant for framing light criticism, scepticism or even simple disagreement by others as snobbery/elitism.
'...
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Is it a fallacy when the opponent comes up with obviously nonsense arguments on my side to make me look stupid?
For example, I'm having a political debate and I am bringing up facts, like under this government the energy prices rose this amount, the unemployment rate is higher then ever and the government had ...
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Contradictions in comparisons of expedience in the Art of Rhetoric
In "The Art of Rhetoric" Chapter 1.7, Aristotle presents a list of conditions determining which good out of two goods is the more expedient.
If, of two things, one is an end and the other ...
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Is there a name for this combination of generalization and the No True Scotsman fallacy?
The pattern:
When specific members of the Other Group display reprehensible behavior, they are cited as evidence that the Other Group as a whole is reprehensible.
When specific members of My Group ...
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Pre-theoretic beliefs about non-existence [closed]
In ordinary thought and language there are obviously particulars and it is assumed they usually consist of parts. Ordinary language also supports "generalized, reified properties" (I'd say ...
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What type of logical fallacy happens here?
This has been going on a lot lately in my country. Usually, in a discussion where some antisocial behavior of an organization is being criticized, a supporter of the organization, usually a member of ...
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What is the philosophical term for using half-truths to intentionally mislead?
Our local school district has been distributing propaganda to support keeping schools open during an uncontrolled pandemic. There has been a common pattern among these statements, where a half-truth ...
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Difference between non-sequitur fallacy and post hoc fallacy?
What is the difference between post hoc fallacy and non sequitur fallacy?
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Your argument is invalid if you didn't experience it!
Consider the following scenario:
Person A never ate a cake. Person B has eaten cake before. Now A has the opinion that A dislikes cake (and brings up several arguments), but B argues "You've ...
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Is there a name for this Freudian-inspired fallacy?
Yet another of these fallacy questions...
There is a certain kind of rhetorical move which famously might occur in classical psychoanalysis, but also in other situations. The therapist says the ...
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Fallacy and guilt by discussion?
I recently encountered a discussion that went along the lines of:
A: Pedophiles are not just old men touching little kids. They're also 23 year olds going out with 16 year olds.
B: Pedophilia ...
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Is feigned listening bullshit? (And if so, or even if not, is there a name for it?)
In his essay On Bullshit Frankfurt writes:
The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the
other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are
of no ...
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Is it difficult to know "general opinion"?
Is it difficult to know "general opinion"?
Or can it be measured well somehow?
I have had this problem of thinking that, when I get another person agree with me that I "possibly" hit a general ...
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I'm trying to identify a rhetorical device
I already asked this question on the writing forum, but I suppose the subject matter is better suited here.
Once again, I am writing a commentary on the book of Galatians, while employing a socio-...
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What type of rhetorical device is the offering of a source which is really long and not specifying what part of the source is relevant?
I'm encountering a frequent recurrence of a rhetorical device that seems to me fallacious but I can't figure out what it's called. When making an argument, the person does the following:
Makes a ...
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Rhetoric: How to frame redundancy in an argument as deficiency?
How can we categorize redundancy in an argument as deficiency? That is, weaken the argument because of its redundancy?
Suppose X is an argument that boasts coherence and clarity, but it has various ...
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logical fallacy (or pseudo-logical, or rhetoric) corresponding to unduly extending my argument to make it false
This is probably similar to my preceding question:
What's the name of the logical fallacy where a debater extends a statement far beyond the original statement to make it true?
but I'm not sure ...
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Is this ad hominem or in general acceptable behavior during an argument?
Person A: What is considered socially acceptable should be common sense regardless of outside influences.
Person B: What is considered common sense or obvious can be very different depending on the ...
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Is there a word for the type of rhetorical strategy where you distract from the point in order to seem authoritative?
Is there a word for distracting someone from the topic of the argument, and using the authority they have established in the mean time to (fallaciously) prove their original point?
An example
I ...
user38026
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Intention and Means-End Reasoning in Epistemology
In his paper, The logical foundations of means-end reasoning, John Pollock describes a notion of "means-end" reasoning, which is planning with a certain end goal in mind.
Human plan-construction ...
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What is the proper response in a debate when your opponent ignores your counterarguments?
I keep running into a situation in debates and arguments. My opponent makes an argument (or counterargument), and I carefully disprove all of my opponent's points. However, instead of addressing my ...
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Is rhetoric philosophy?
In rhetoric, students are primarily concerned with making arguments that are convincing. Rhetoricians who deviated from the truth were rightly skewered in Socrates' time for their problematic "...
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What is the meaning of the term 'eúnoia'?
While reading on the subject of rhetoric, I learned a technique entitled 'captatio benevolentiae'. Further research revealed to me its root being 'eúnoia' (Greek for a well mind; beautiful thinking). ...
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What argumentative tactic is in play when someone says "The media isn't covering this"?
I see memes about once a week which state, "The media isn't covering this really important thing. Shouldn't they be ashamed! Like and Share and FWD to grandma if you agree!". Similar posts include "...
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How to build up clear ideas
I was reading Descartes' Rules for the direction of mind and noticed how clear are his ideas. I would love to speak in that way, where every sentence is a necessary step to climb up the final idea.
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user29573
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Did Plato say "In order to argue, you must express your opponents argument better than they could?"
One friend said:
If I can't see what is substantial and noble in a viewpoint I oppose - whether ethical, political, or religious - there's a good chance I haven't understood it, and/or that my own ...
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What logical fallacy is the statement that "A good person would do X" as an argument against not doing X?
I am lecturing a class in which a student has asked for my slides in advance. (My main reason for not doing this is to avoid students passively reading the answers to questions that I put to them in ...
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What fallacy dismisses problems by making it specific to the critic?
Occasionally, I write criticisms about some products online and people respond with statements like, "That's just your problem," or questions like, "If you don't like it then why do you use it?" I ...
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Identifying logical fallacy in argument
A friend challenged me with a statement
A1: If there is no Jesus, why are there churches?
Which rules of reasoning does it break? Is there a name for statements like that?
The presented statement ...
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Are mythological stories scientific explanations?
Are mythological stories scientific explanations?
{It would seem so because Zeus, for example, was as early explanation of lightening.}
Or are they stories/rhetoric?
Or is story-telling or rhetoric ...
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How, if at all, has the concept of rhetoric mutated during post-modernity?
How, if at all, has the concept of rhetoric mutated during post-modernity?
I gather than it ('rhetoric') began its life, in classical Greece, as a form of public discourse inclusive of 'poetry', '...
user25714
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Identifying deployed rhetoric instruments [closed]
There is a quote from a TV series, which seems to contain (at least) two rhetoric instruments.
Michael Scott: Toby is in HR, which technically means he works for
corporate. So he's really not a ...
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What fallacy dismisses criticism of a bad law with "just don't break it"?
Let's say someone is criticizing the government for instituting some draconian policy, and/or for persecuting people for doing something minor. And the response is:"Just don't do it and you'll be fine"...
