MY CRITICAL THINKING CLASS NOTES / RHETORICAL DEVICES
I reduced the class down to less than three pages!
Juanita Holloway-Walters aka Texas Lady Juanita
PERSUASIVE:
EUPHEMISM – Good expression replacing bad one that may offend
INUENDO – Insinuation of something deprecatory
RHETORICAL DEFINITION – To influence attitude or affect behavior, use images w/ positive or negative emotions (also known as Rhetorical Explanation and Rhetorical Comparison)
DYSPEMISM – Bad expression used to tone down the good
LOADED QUESTION – Question that rests on one or more unwarranted or unjustified assumptions
RHETORICAL DEVICE – Influence attitudes or beliefs through association – adds to persuasive but not logical
DOWNPLAYER – Diminish importance of claim
PROOF SURROGATE – Expression in place of actual evidence or authority
HORSE LAUGH – Ridicule disguised as reasoning to reject claim
RHETORIC – Persuade rather than prove logically
STEREOTYPE – Oversimplified generalization about a person of a certain class
HYPERBOLE – Extravagant Overstatement
WEASELER – Expression used to protect claim from criticism by weakening it
COMMON FALLACIES:
AD HOMINEM – Argument against claim based on who made the claim instead of against the actual claim (cannot resist pointing out that The Tea Party people are attacked this way, with Ad Hominem arguments on the six o’clock news – by other political parties calling us names we would normally attribute to far left, and not debating the issues)
FALSE DILEMMA – Fallacious reasoning – x and y can both be false — false reasoning says x is true because y is false
PERSONAL ATTACK AD HOMINEM – Refusing claim because person making it we do not like, or we disapprove of them
APPEAL TO IGNORANCE – Lack of evidence against a claim doesn’t mean the claim gets any positive points
GENETIC FALLACY – YO Mama! Not really ha ha – Rejecting a claim on the basis of its origin or history
POISIONING THE WELL – Discrediting the claim in advance because we don’t like the person
BEGGING THE QUESTION – Argument in which conclusion is identical to the argument (restates argument)
INCONSISTENCEY AD HOMINEM – You can’t make that claim due to prior opposing stance (or your actions are opposite)
MISPLACED BURDEN OF PROOF – Case where burden of proof is on the wrong side
LINE-DRAWING FALLACY – Insisting that a line be drawn at x, when it could also be drawn at y or z
SLIPPERY SLOPE – Arguing that because x happens, then y and or z will also happen
CIRCUMSTANTIAL AD HOMINEM – Attempting to discredit claim by discrediting the person making the claim
PERFECTIONIST FALLACY – Concluding claim is false because its conclusion is not perfect
STRAW MAN – Ignores actual position and argues a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented position
PSYCHOLOGICAL & RELATED FALLACIES
WISHFUL THINKING – Accepting it because you want it to be true and vice versa
GUILT TRIP – Making someone feel guilty for not accepting claim
ARGUEMENT COMMON PRACTICE – Justify or defend on grounds that everyone knows it or does it
NATIONALISM – Because of nationalism one may be led to blind endorsement of policy or claim
ARGUMENT FROM ENVY – Induce acceptance by arousing feelings of envy
ARGUMENT FROM OUTRAGE – Invoking anger with inflammatory words followed by conclusion
ARGUMENT BY FORCE – Using threat to support some conclusion
ARGUMENT BY PEER PRESSURE – Threatened by rejection if you don’t accept a claim
GROUP THINK FALLACY – Identifying with a group takes the place of reason and deliberation on an issue
ARGUMENT FROM PITY – Supporting claim by invoking pity rather than legitimate argument
SCARE TACTICS – Frightening scenario instead of facts to get someone to see it your way
ARGUMENT FROM POPULARITY – Convince of argument just because all or most believe it
SMOKE SCREEN – Irrelevant topic introduced to lead you away from original issue (Politicians in Washington like this one)
RATIONALIZING – False pretext to satisfy our desires or interests (teens love this one)
SUBJECTIVISM – An assumption that is true for one person, yet not for another
RED HERRING – Same as SMOKESCREEN
ARGUMENT FROM TRADITION – Using tradition as the basis of a claim
RELATIVISM – Error that two different cultures can believe different on a fact (oh, I could write a book on this one)
TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT – Saying I can hit you because you would hit me
SCAPEGOATING – Placing the blame on a person or a group in error because they are an easy target
Texas Lady Juanita
Copyright © 2018 by Juanita Holloway-Walters
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