I
Logos: arguments based on facts, evidence, and reason
a. Two basic types of proofs
i. Inartistic proofs: aka hard evidence
1. Facts
2. Clues
3. Statistics
4. Testimonies
5. Witnesses
6. Example: Ambassador Stevenson relying on
evidence of spy photos documenting the U.S.S.R
placing missiles in Cuba
ii. Artistic appeals: aka reason and common sense
1. These blur with ethos and pathos
2. Example: Colin Powell relying on patterns of
behavior to prove Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction
I. Providing Hard Evidence
a. All arguments = (statement + proof), or (claim + supporting evidence)
b. Facts
i. Rely largely on credibility of the source, or ethos
ii. Are subject to biased interpretation
1. New internet mediums provide for a wider range of voices
2. Some voices are deliberately misleading
a. Ex. Colin Powell’s faulty Iraq intelligence
3. Scrutinize your facts and admit any problems right away!
c. Statistics
i. “Figures lie and liars figure”
1. Example:
a. “Unemployment stands at just a little over 5 percent.”
VS.
b. “Unemployment at 5 percent means that millions of Americans don’t earn a daily wage. Indeed, one out of every twenty adults who wants work can’t find it.”
d. Surveys and Polls
i. These play a huge role in people’s political and social lives so they deserve special attention.
ii. Polls come as close to expressing the will of the people as anything short of an election.
iii. Very useful in proving persuasive reasons to motivate action or intervention
iv. Important questions
1. Who commissioned the poll?
2. Who is publishing its outcome?
3. Who was surveyed? In what proportions?
4. What stakes do these people have in the survey’s outcome?
v. Results can vary greatly depending on how the question is asked
e. Testimonies, Narratives, and Interviews
i. Personal experience carefully reported can support a claim convincingly
ii. Examples:
1. Student evaluation of a professor
2. Interview with “eco-terrorist”
f. Using Reason and Common Sense
i. Syllogisms
1. All human beings are mortal. Socrates is a human being. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
ii. Most of these informal arguments rely on the habits of the mind and cultural assumptions
iii. Enthymeme= claim + reason
1. We’d better cancel the picnic because it’s going to rain.
2. Flat taxes are fair because they treat everyone the same.
3. I’ll buy a PC laptop instead of a Mac because it’s cheaper.
4. Be wary of environmentalism because it’s religion disguised as science.
5. iPods are undermining civil society by making us even more focused on ourselves.
6. It’s time to make all public toilets unisex because to do otherwise is discriminatory.
g. Cultural Assumptions and Values
i. The United States bases many arguments on fairness and equity
1. Affirmative action promotes fairness to correct enduring inequities from the past.
2. Affirmative action involves preferential policies which should be overturned because they are not fair today.
ii. Tradition is often cited as well
II. Providing Logical Structures for Argument
a. Degree—so common people barely notice them
i. More of a good thing is good
ii. “If physical slavery is repulsive, how much more repulsive is the concept of servility of the spirit?”
b. Analogies—explaining one idea or concept by comparing it to something else
i. More extensive and complex than metaphors or similes
c. Precedent vs.
i. Similar to analogies in that precedents also offer comparison
ii. “If motorists in most other states can pump their own gas safely, surely the state of New Jersey can trust its own drivers to be as capable. It’s time for New Jersey to permit self-service gas stations.”
iii. What was done in the past is a good/bad model for what we should do now.
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