Encyclopedia > Pathetic fallacy

  Article Content

Pathetic fallacy

The pathetic fallacy is a gross logical fallacy of considering inanimate objects or conceptual entities such as countries as if they were living creatures. For example:

  • "America wants to punish France!"
  • "Ah, it is no good. That car just doesn't want to start!"
  • "the moving object, due to its mass, wants to keep going"
John Ruskin coined this phrase in his work "Modern Painters[?]".

The phrase is sometimes used in literary criticism, with reference to the above idea. For example, in a drama or novel, the weather might seem to be in tune with the characters' feelings.



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
Mayenne

...     Contents Mayenne Mayenne is a French département, number 53, named after the Mayenne River[?]. Préfecture (capital): ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 23.8 ms