2018-06-13

Irrational Appeal

An irrational appeal encourages people to accept ideas for some reason

other than reasonableness. Such an appeal says, in effect, “There’s no

need to think critically about this idea or compare it with alternative

ideas—just accept it.” In reality, of course, it is always appropriate to think critically about ideas, because ideas that seem correct are sometimes incorrrect and incorrect ideas can have harmful consequences.

The most common kinds of irrational appeals are to emotion, tradition,

moderation, authority, common belief, and tolerance. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that every such appeal is necessarily irrational. Some appeals, as we will see, are legitimate; critical thinking demands that we discern which are rational and which are not.

非理性诉求

一个非理性诉求鼓励人们出于一些并无合理性的理由接受观点。一个诉求这样说，事实上，“对这个观点不需要批判性思考或者和相关观点比较——接受它就好。”当然，在现实中，批判性考虑观点常常是适当的，因为貌似正确的观点是有时不正确的，并且不正确的观点可能会有有害的结果。

最常见的非理性诉求种类是感情，传统，适度，权威，共同信念，还有宽容。但是，总结称每一个这种诉求都是不合理的是错误的。一些诉求，就像我们看到的，是合法的；批判性思考需要我们看出哪些是理性的哪些不是。