Logic
This fallacy has the following argument form:
- Either P or Q is true.
- Q is frightening.
- Therefore, P is true.
The argument is invalid. The appeal to emotion is used in exploiting existing fears to create support for the speaker's proposal, namely P. Also, often the false dilemma fallacy is involved, suggesting Q is the proposed idea's sole alternative.
Read more about this topic: Appeal To Fear
Famous quotes containing the word logic:
““... We need the interruption of the night
To ease attention off when overtight,
To break our logic in too long a flight,
And ask us if our premises are right.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Though living is a dreadful thing
And a dreadful thing is it
Life the niggard will not thank,
She will not teach who will not sing,
And what serves, on the final bank,
Our logic and our wit?”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Somebody who should have been born
is gone.
Yes, woman, such logic will lead
to loss without death. Or say what you meant,
you coward . . . this baby that I bleed.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)