MISUSING AUTHORITY

Genuine appeals to reason found in speeches or discussions are the bones of formal argument and the flesh of evidence. But discourse is usually more than naked reason; it is adorned with many embellishments designed to persuade or to please. Strictly considered, these embellishments are irrelevant. Practically considered, some of this irrelevant material may be advisable. The speaker will often want to adapt the tone of his speech to the occasion or to the mood of his audience. He will want to show the importance of the issue, to bring home a realization of human problems that may lie outside the experience of the average person. For instance, if a speaker is bent on proving that more money must be allocated for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents, he may find it helpful to describe some case histories. Here a good speaker resembles a novelist: he gives his listeners a sort of "knowledge-of-acquaint-ance" concerning human situations where before they may have had only a detached "knowledge-about" the problems involved.

If this sort of appeal, though logically irrelevant, is practically justified, there still remain many sorts that are not. The appeals described in the following fallacies often serve to take advantage of the ignorance of the audience rather than to overcome it. They play on prejudices and misconceptions instead of meeting them squarely. And one must very often suspect that, unlike some fallacies which are the result of ignorance or carelessness, these appeals are dishonest in intent.