Appeal to Pity
(argumentum ad misercordiam)
Definition:
The reader is told to agree to the proposition because of the pitiful state of the author.
Examples:
(i) How can you say that ball was out of bounds? It was so close, and I'm down ten games to two.
(ii) We hope you'll accept our recommendations. We spent the last three months working extra time on it and we are quite exhausted.
(iii) You ought to think highly of my term paper especially since I graduated last in my class.
(iv) You ALWAYS win these arguments. Can't you let me win just this once?
Proof:
Identify the proposition and the appeal to pity and argue that the pitiful state of the arguer has nothing to do with the truth of the proposition.
References:
Cedarblom and Paulsen: 151, Copi and Cohen: 103, Davis: 82
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