Links to rhetorical tools:

Here are links to the rhetorical tools used in this class:

Schemes & Tropes -- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca -- Fallacies -- Burke -- Rhetorical Toolbox -- Conspiracy Rhetorics

Friday, February 17, 2017

This Baffling World


Some Informal Argumentative Fallacies

Fallacy
Evidence
Purpose
Wishful Thinking:
Something is true because I want it to be.
The faction of people who would be interested in reading this book, are people who are at least curious about mysteries.
Al
To trigger peoples curiosity. So they will read the book.
Appeal to Ignorance:
 Something is true because there is no evidence for it.
Pg.16, 21,28 ect.
There is no actual cited information in this book. There are pictures with footnotes about the pictures but these are still unreliable.
So whoever is reading it does not have to take time to question the creditability of the book.
Appeal to Misleading Authority (w/ Appeal to Celebrity & Appeal to Tradition):
Using an authority to affirm a conclusion when the authority is not expert enough, in the context, to assure the conclusion
Pg. 94, 26, 102
There are many pictures of High ranking military service members, old white dudes and pictures of men with glasses scattered throughout the book.
To show people that there were smart people actually involved in these events. Thus making it more creditable.
Anecdotal Fallacy/
Misleading Vividness:
A Hasty Generalization that relies on the availability heuristic (we generalize from vivid stories more readily).
Pg.1, 35, 67, 115
This book is made up of four different stories about events that may or may not have happed.
To show the reader that there are many events that they may not know about so they will start questioning reality.









Perelman’s Rhetoric of Argument
Premises
Evidence
Purpose
Loci-Quality:
The rear and unique is better
There are four bizarre stories in this book.
No one wants to read about a man eating a donut.
Presumption-The Normal:
Based on a reference group or experience
Each event is told by about a different person and their experience
This shows that there re many stories that have not been told.
Values-Abstract:
Not concrete: “truth” “justice”
There is no hard evidence to back up any of these stories.

Premise modifier
Evidence
Purpose
Presence-Repetition:
 Say it again. And again. And again.
There are four stories.

Presence-Amplification:
Divide whole into parts.
Each story is unrelated
To make the book more diverse.
Interpretation-Specific Choices:
Choose between alternatives.
The author has a choice to leave out all the information or to tell a story that is streamlined into something interesting.
So the story is constant with the theme of the book.
Argument Types
Evidence
Purpose
Establishing the Structure of Reality
Illustration-Presence:
Event strikes the imagination in connection with the rule
This is pretty much a story built on imagination.
To add elements to the story to make it more believable.
Establishing the Structure of Reality
Example-Exception:
Argument separating event/s and rules/realities.
There are four different stories.
So that the book as a whole seems more believable.


3 comments:

  1. For this one since we aren't reading the book or getting the summary info from it, I probably would've cited actual quotes so we could compare and contrast the Fallacy. But good job with connecting how the fallacy was used.

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  2. I would have liked to see more of your own thoughts as well as either direct quotes or reasonable summaries. From what you have stated, the author seems to work off of the reader's curiosity. Is this effective? What does the author do specifically to draw the reader in? Why does he use these techniques over others, and what does that say about the audience and author by extension?

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  3. I agree with both Amanda and David for both you fallacy post and your argument post. Both blog posts lack textual evidence/quotes and that doesn't really allow the audience to understand what you're trying to get across since we don't know what you're reading. Nonetheless, the work you did on the fallacy blogpost was very well put together. And the work you did for Perelman's arguments was also done in a good, well-organized manner.

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