Mlsericordiam, argumentum ad 109
facts, there will be an obvious distinction between your prudent
investments and the reckless spending of others, between the
modest perquisites to which you were entitled and the wholesale
embezzlement in which they have engaged. Your dispassionate
testimony should contrast well with their frenzied diatribe.
Miserkordiam, argumentum ad
While pity is an admirable human quality, it does not provide the
best basis for argument. When we turn to pity instead of rea-
soned discourse to support a particular contention, we commit
the argumentum ad misericordiam.
In asking yourself if this man is to be convicted, ask yourself what it will
mean for him to be locked up in prison, deprived of his liberty, and
turned into an outcast from humanity.
(The question is whether he is guilty or not, not what conviction will
do to him.)When we are called upon to settle questions of fact, we should
be weighing up the evidence on each side and attempting to
arrive at the truth. The introduction of pity does nothing for the
argument. While it might reasonably influence our actions, it
should not influence our judgement. The consequences to var-
ious parties of the truth or falsehood of a statement does not
bear on that truth or falsehood. Whether a man is sent to prison
or to the South Seas for a holiday does not alter the fact itself. An
ad misericordiam is committed if pity is appealed to in the set-
tlement of questions of truth and falsehood.
Can we continue to afford Jeeves as our groundsman? Look what will
happen if we don't. Imagine the state of his wife and his children with