Saturday, March 5, 2011
Bad Appeal to Common Belief
After reading chapter 5 of Epstein, we learn about how bad appeals are used and applied in our daily lives. Bad appeal to common belief is defined as accepting a claim to be true only after seeing that other people belive the claim as well. The bad appeal to common belief is a popular mistake that affects the way we reason or make opinions on claims. A common term or known phrase that is often used is 'Hopping the bandwagon'. This mistake normally occurs when people are under the pressure of their peers, role models, or people that hold high credibility. An example of bandwagoning would pretain to sports. A lot of people are not usually a fan of a sports team unless the team is on a winning streak and not from the start. They join the fanbase of a sports team only because everyone else is supporting them and not solely on their own opinion.
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This form of fallacy is very common in everyday life. The example that you used was right on point. It reminds me of Super Bowl Sunday. My boyfriend and I were watching the game and he is a die-hard Eagles fan, but was cheering away when Green Bay scored their first points above the Steelers. When I questioned him about his “team-hopping”, he said since there was a team winning, he just has to cheer. I didn’t understand it but men have their logic. I remember when I was younger and would get mad because my mom wouldn’t let me do what everyone else was doing; she used to tell me, “So if everyone jumped off a cliff, would you do it?” I wish I had known then, what I know now I would have had a comeback.
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