Encyclopedia > Argument ad misericordiam

  Article Content

Appeal to pity

Redirected from Argument ad misericordiam

An appeal to pity is a logical fallacy in which someone tries to win support for their argument or idea by exploiting their opponent's feelings of pity or guilt.

Examples:

  • "I hope you like my proposal. It took me six years to write and I don't know what I'd do if you reject it."
  • "Look at that poor homeless kitty. I bet it hasn't eaten in days. You should adopt it."

As with all logical fallacies, these ideas aren't necessarily bad, they just aren't good for the reason stated according to traditional logic.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Islandia, New York

... is spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 36.3% from 25 to 44, 25.1% from 45 to 64, and 7.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 35.6 ms