Beyond Feelings

CHAPTER 11 Errors of Expression
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forget about the evidence against his client. The most audacious courtroom
example of such an appeal (often used to define the Yiddish term
chutzpah) is the case of the man who killed both his parents and then
begged the court for mercy because he was an orphan!
IRRATIONAL APPEAL TO TRADITION
To be rational, an appeal to tradition must not only tell people how old
and revered the tradition is but also show that it still deserves our
endorsement. An irrational appeal urges maintaining the tradition merely
because we’ve always done so. Irrational appeals of this kind have been
used to obstruct advances in every field, including science, technology, and
medicine. People initially argued against the toothbrush, the umbrella, the
airplane, the telephone, the computer, and virtually every other invention
because “our ancestors got along nicely without these newfangled gadgets.”
For many years, doctors refused to accept indisputable evidence that
washing their hands between patients curtailed the spread of disease
simply because washing hands between patients was not part of the medical
tradition.
IRRATIONAL APPEAL TO MODERATION
A rational appeal to moderation includes an explanation of why the more
moderate idea or action is preferable to less moderate alternatives. An
irrational appeal to moderation is offered on the erroneous presumption
that moderation is always preferable. Consider the issue of slavery at the
time of the Civil War. Some people regarded the keeping of slaves as a
moral abomination that should be abolished, others as a legitimate form
of ownership that should be preserved. The moderate view would have
been to let each person decide for himself or herself whether to own
slaves. (The slaves, of course, would not have a say in the decision.)
Today no responsible person would endorse that view.
IRRATIONAL APPEAL TO AUTHORITY
The authority cited may be a person, a book or document, or an agency
(such as the Supreme Court). A rational appeal to authority says, or at least
implies, “Here is what one or more authorities say,” and proceeds to show
why that view should be accepted. An irrational appeal to authority says,
“Here is what one or more authorities say—accept it unquestioningly.”
Because authorities enjoy no special protection from error, the idea that
their pronouncements should never be questioned is foolish and therefore
unacceptable.