Location
Room 3
Document Type
Paper
Keywords
ad baculum fallacy, appeal to force, fallacy theory, beliefs, commitments, Douglas Walton, audience
Start Date
3-6-2020 11:00 AM
End Date
3-6-2020 12:00 PM
Abstract
Standard accounts of the ad baculum locate its fallaciousness either in irrelevance or dialogue shift. Such accounts, however, fail to explain its persuasiveness. This paper offers a new account where the real target of an ad baculum is an audience downstream from the initial ad baculum exchange. This means that the ad baculum consists in misrepresenting the quality of evidence by means of the forced adoption of a particular standpoint.
Reader's Reactions
Thierry Herman, Commentary on “The Persuasive Force of the Ad Baculum” by John Patrick Casey (June 2020)
Included in
The Persuasive Force of the Ad Baculum
Room 3
Standard accounts of the ad baculum locate its fallaciousness either in irrelevance or dialogue shift. Such accounts, however, fail to explain its persuasiveness. This paper offers a new account where the real target of an ad baculum is an audience downstream from the initial ad baculum exchange. This means that the ad baculum consists in misrepresenting the quality of evidence by means of the forced adoption of a particular standpoint.
