Thursday, April 15, 2010
Appeal to Emotion
There is a very interesting section in chapter ten in the Epstein book. It has to do with Appeals to emotion. It talks about how we should use our emotions and that they should play some kind of role in our reasoning. This may be true but then the next question would be, "Can we use too much emotion?". That is a very interesting thing to think about. We may act to quickly at times because of our emotions. I think that it is very important to keep a level head and not act solely on your emotions, but actually think before you make a decision on your reasoning. By definition, an appeal to emotion in an argument is just a premise that says, roughly, you should believe or do something because you feel a certain way. Then the book goes on to give an example. It says that Suzy saw an advertisement that was trying to collect money for children in need. Suzy says the ad was very sad and she wanted to give money. in my opinion, she was acting only on emotion when she should really take her time and think about it before she goes and spends her money. Her emotions were the only reason she felt that way. Overall, it was an interesting concept to learn about.
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I enjoyed reading your post because it contained a lot of information that I was thinking of myself when I was reading the chapter on appeal to emotion. I think what you said about keeping a level head and thinking things through before doing it is exactly correct. I think that using our emotions to make judgments about things like a person’s character is ok but things like buying a brand of phone is illogical. It definitely was an interesting topic to read about because everyone sees it everyday day in advertisements. I myself have never thought twice about the angle the advertisement was coming from to direct at the viewer.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with your blog. You did a great job at breaking down what the bookw as trying to tell us and put it back into your own words that helped me understand it better. Your examples are really great and they definitely helped me further better understand the concept at hand. You did a great job at getting your point across and the way you broke it down really helped me grasp what the book was saying. I also liked how you took an example that the book used and then explained it into more detail. Great job!
ReplyDeletei liked this post you wrote about and how you gave an example from the book. i also liked how you mentioned that people should act less on their emotions and spend more time thinking about what is the motive behind each advertisement and move they make. i can definitely relate to suzy because i too, tend to act based on what my emotions tell me rather than to take the time to actually think about what's going on, and whether or not these salespeople are using appeal to pity to attract us and encourage us to support their cause. overall, good job on this post! =)
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