APLC/Spring 2015/Syllogism and Enthymeme Practice 2. Hi guys! Sorry to be absent today. I will be back tomorrow.

Transcription

1 Hi guys! Sorry to be absent today. I will be back tomorrow. Today s retake of Monday s Short Cycle Assessment will occur tomorrow. Today, find a partner and use the period to complete this activity. You should finish by the end of class and give it to your guest teacher. Collaborate quietly! NAMES: Enthymemes 1. Back when Hillary Clinton first ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, she favored a proposed holiday from the 18 cent/gallon federal gasoline tax during the peak summer driving season. As U.S. senators, both she and John McCain supported this plan, but not Barack Obama. This is what Clinton said: Barack Obama is opposed to the gasoline tax relief. But I believe hard working Americans deserve a break. Write two syllogisms that could be extrapolated from Clinton s argument, giving two premises and a conclusion, filling in the unstated pieces. Major premise: (unstated) Minor premise: I am in favor of giving hard working Americans a break. Conclusion: (unstated) Major premise: (unstated) Minor premise: Obama is opposed to this tax relief. Conclusion: (unstated)

2 Why did Clinton leave out the unstated premises and conclusion? 2. Express the following enthymeme as a syllogism. Fill in the premises and conclusion, and label them as stated or unstated. The enthymeme comes from President Jimmy Carter s 1980 Concession Address. Major premise: I wanted to serve as President because I love this country and because I love the people of this nation. Minor premise: Conclusion: Why would Carter leave out the missing piece?

3 3. Express the following enthymeme as a syllogism. Fill in the premises and conclusion, and label them as stated or unstated. The enthymeme comes from a speech by Thomas J. Eagleton. Major premise: Ladies and gentlemen, I will not divide the Democratic Party. Therefore, tomorrow morning I will write to the Chairman of the Democratic Party withdrawing my candidacy. Minor premise: Conclusion: Why would Eagleton leave out the missing piece? 4. Make up your own enthymeme. You can use a common prejudice or stereotype, or you can be even more creative and come up with something else. Major premise: Minor premise: Conclusion:

4 5. Preacher: Are we going to allow sin to become the ruler of our daily lives? Crowd: No! Preacher: Are we going to allow ignorance and destruction to be our master? Crowd: No! Preacher: Are we going to allow the devil to make our house his brothel? Crowd: No! Preacher: Then I ask you: Proposition P is on the ballot this Tuesday, and you must decide how to vote. Yes or no. Major Premise (group all the preacher s questions into one statement about religious values): Minor Premise (unstated): Conclusion (unstated): Why would the preacher leave the minor premise unstated? And why leave the conclusion unstated?

5 6. The Mission Accomplished Speech On May 1, 2003, speaking from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush declared the end to major combat operations in Iraq. He said: The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11 th, 2001, and still goes on. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got. Hidden premise: Why was this premise left out? What is plausible deniability? 7. The Power of Enthymemes: A few quotes Why did so many Americans believe Saddam was behind 9/11? For some, it was no doubt just the feeling that one evil Middle Easterner is the same as the next, and since Saddam and Osama bin Laden are both bad guys, they must be in cahoots. No one in the administration ever said, "Saddam helped plan Sept. 11," but the rhetoric before and after the war contained innumerable suggestions to that effect. It is hard to believe that the White House was unaware that if the words "Saddam Hussein" and "Sept. 11" were mentioned in the same sentence or the same paragraph, people would not make the link on their own. Paul Waldman In an enthymeme, the speaker builds an argument with one element removed, leading listeners to fill in the missing piece." As a rhetorical device consciously used, enthymeme can be a dramatically effective way of making a point, and as long as the missing element of the argument is actually true, no harm is done. On the other hand, when a used car salesman uses enthymeme to "let you think" something that isn't actually true, while very carefully avoiding making the false claim explicit, that's deception. The fact that the false claim has been carefully avoided is common-sense

6 evidence for the salesman's dishonesty, though the absence of any explicit claim usually means that the salesman is legally off the hook. The receiver of an enthymeme has to supply the missing parts. By doing so, the receiver completes a logical circuit and persuades himself. Some of the best arguments are enthymemes, but so are some of the worst. If the purpose of the rhetor is to deceive others into accepting a weak claim, then enthymemes are ideals forms because they hide the weakest parts of the argument. Barry Mauer Rather than relying upon an unstated premise, sometimes a speaker will rely on an unstated conclusion. There are a number of psychological and sociological studies that show that a timely reinforced conclusion reached by a person (rather than merely dictated to the person), becomes an opinion set in inertia it is very hard to change. To the receiver of the enthymeme, the conclusion has the feel of a belief that he or she has always had. 8. Enthymemes in Advertising Text of the ad: Be Happy Naked Get skin so good you want to show it off. 79% of people who drink an extra litre of Evian pure natural mineral water a day notice their skin looking smoother, more hydrated and as a result visibly younger. 1. What important logical step(s) is (are) left out?

7 2. What is the ad promising directly and indirectly? 3. Are there any problems with the use of statistics? 4. What is the ad assuming about us, the viewers? 5. Are there any other logical problems with this ad?