Monday, November 1, 2010
Exercise 1, pg. 195
An example of a bad argument that calls for affirmative action whose only premises appeal to pity is giving money to someone that does not work hard for it. The reason why you would pity this person is if he/she does not have a job or the person can actually put you on some sort of guilt trip by making excuses for why he/she does not have money. It would seem plausible to give money, especially if they are going through a financial crisis but at the same time, if the person is not making any effort to get a job and be self-sufficient, it would be implausible to give money. Giving money is basically at your expense and who knows if you will see a cent back. It would only seem plausible to give money if you knew exactly what it was going to, if you trusted the person, and if you had the money to spare. Other than that, giving money only babies the person and he/she will not appreciate the value of money if he/she does not make it on his/her own.
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I decided to comment on this blog because it reminds me of homeless people out there. They just hold a sheet of cardboard with a sharpie pen written on simple phrases like "Help. Hungry. God Bless." Something like that strikes an immediate appeal to pity, which I wish that it doesn't hit me so easily. I always want to give them some spare change or a dollar to help them out, but I don't know if it is worth giving it to them. I was told that these people are homeless for a reason, such as not trying to find a job out there and they probably have some kind of assistance from the government. I also heard that they might use the money that is given to buy alcohol or drugs. So everytime I see a homeless out there, I tend to ignore them because you might as well donate that money to a legit charity. Nice job on the post that calls for my attention on commenting it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post and as well as Little Miss blogger , it also makes me think about homeless with their signs asking for sympathy and change. That does strike an appeal to pity, because when you think of a homeless person, you think that they hardly eat and have no way to get a hold of money, but at the same time, what are they going to buy if you give them your money? I like how you said that if you knew where the money was going and what it was being used for, that you will feel good about sparing extra change to a homeless. If you knew that they were going to go and buy beer and do drugs, then you would probably reconsider the choice of giving money away. This requires thought about what someone would do with the money your giving and if your capable of sparing some money for the benefit of somebody else... Great post, this made me think deeper in to the appeal to pity.
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