 This is one of a sequence of videos to help with air-level critical thinking and this video is going to be all about appeals Now there are several types of appeal that you're expected to know about appeals to popularity appeals to authority appeals to tradition appeals to history and appeals to emotion So I go through these one at a time First of all, let's look at the appeal to popularity This happens when somebody argues as follows. They say that some idea X is really popular idea So therefore X must be true Or alternatively they say lots of people are doing X therefore X is the right thing to do So it's an argument from the popularity of something to it being correct or right Now obviously this isn't valid For example in the past the overwhelming majority of people thought that the Sun orbited the earth But they were wrong just because lots of people think something doesn't mean that it's actually true In the same way if a lot of people or indeed if everybody thought that the earth was flat That wouldn't mean that that idea is actually true In general the fact that a lot of people think something or do something Doesn't mean that it's right because they could simply be wrong Similarly the Romans used to think that slavery was acceptable But we don't agree and it's clear to us that just because they all thought that it doesn't mean that they were right It doesn't mean that slavery is acceptable just because a lot of people are doing it And let's look at some examples of some arguments which make an appeal to popularity Somebody might say well Android now has a much higher market share than Apple's iOS So it's clear that Android is the better operating system And obviously that doesn't work just because more people are buying Android phones Doesn't mean that Android is better than iOS. There could be lots of other reasons why that's the case For example, it might be that Android phones are on the whole cheaper Here's another argument that makes an appeal to popularity The argument says everyone is selfish Everyone is doing what he believes will make himself happier So why should you feel guilty for seeking your own happiness when that's what everyone else is doing too? But again, this argument doesn't work the fact that selfishness is very popular doesn't mean that it's right In fact, it's easy to explain why so many people are selfish without that being the right thing to do It's simply because it benefits them Okay, so an appeal to popularity is something where somebody argues that something is the right thing to do or the right thing to believe Just because a lot of people are doing it or think it and that's not right Just because a lot of people are doing something or think something doesn't mean that it's true. They could easily be wrong Okay, so let's move on to our next type of appeal the appeal to authority Now this happens when an author argues that an authority a thinks that x is true so therefore x is true or Alternatively somebody argues authority a tells us to do x so therefore we should do x Now this type of appeal is very often made in adverts. For example, you very often get celebrity endorsements of a product So here are a couple of adverts from years gone by where Hollywood celebrities are telling people that they should drink royal crown cola And obviously the idea here is that because these are sort of authority figures or at least celebrity figures We ought to do that because they are And here's another example of this where Marilyn Monroe is telling us that luster cream is the the the product to use to shampoo your hair In fact with this particular advert There's a nice combination of an appeal to popularity with an appeal to authority look It says luster cream is the favorite beauty shampoo of four out of five top Hollywood stars So presumably here the idea is that they're people in Hollywood, so there are authorities on this We should do what they do and also so many of them four out of five eighty percent of them are doing it So it's popular among those celebrities And of course this type of thing still goes on plenty of the time today as well I mean here's a double page spread from some kind of contemporary magazine where it says you know a product is good when an a-lister won't stop raving about it and We can see that Alicia Dixon and Victoria Beckham and people like that are telling us that we ought to use particular products Now it's crucial to understand with an appeal to authority That some appeals to authority are actually perfectly okay Sometimes the appeal to authority is a relevant one and there's nothing wrong with the argument because it makes an appeal to authority For example when you go to your doctor and your doctor recommends that you take a particular medicine In that case it's rational to accept her authority and to say or at least to think to yourself well clearly you know a lot more about this than me I'm going to accept your authority and Believe that what you say about me is right and that I need to take this medicine And that's rational because we don't know unless we're doctors We don't know what's best for us in this sort of context There's no practical way for us to become sufficiently expert to answer that sort of question ourselves We have to accept the authority of the GP or the medical practitioner So we need to think about when appeals to authority are acceptable and when they're not when they're relevant So firstly for an appeal to authority to be relevant it must be necessary to make that appeal It must be about an issue where I can't make up my own mind or find some evidence myself And I've got to turn to an authority figure to answer the question And secondly the authority has to be an expert on the particular topic that we're talking about So for example, it's okay to use the GP as an authority when you're going to the doctor and There's something wrong with you and you want to know what you should do But it's not acceptable to use doctors as authority figures on other topics So for example if we needed to know about climate change or or politics It wouldn't be appropriate to see your GP as an authority on those things Thirdly the authorities got to be unbiased and A nice illustration of this is that sometimes you get sports stars who are endorsing Sports equipment. So maybe a tennis player might be advertising a particular brand of tennis racket So in that case you might think well, they probably are an expert about what tennis racket is the best one to use But on the other hand, they're presumably being paid a ton of money by the manufacturer of the tennis racket to endorse it So in that case, although they're relevant authorities and they probably are experts They're clearly biased and that's why you wouldn't appeal to the authority of a tennis player Who's endorsing a brand of tennis racket and finally for an appeal to authority to be relevant We need the opinion to be an uncontroversial one If it's something which different experts in the same field don't agree about Then clearly it's inappropriate to say well, it must be true because this particular authority says so Okay, let's look at some examples of appeals to authority So here's one Brad Pitt has endorsed both Barack Obama and Chanel number five So it's clear that Obama is the right man for president and Chanel number five is the best perfume on the market So obviously this is silly Brad Pitt's no expert on politics and nor presumably he's a particularly expert on women's fragrances And is being paid a ton of money to endorse Chanel number five So in this case the appeal to Brad Pitt as an authority is a totally irrelevant one Here's another argument reincarnation probably exists after all Albert Einstein believed in it So here Einstein is being used as an authority to argue that reincarnation exists But obviously this is a silly argument I mean Einstein was clearly highly intelligent, but that doesn't make him an expert on reincarnation and You could hardly say that reincarnation is an uncontroversial topic So it's not appropriate to say that just because Einstein thought that it must be true Here's another argument My dentist says that I should brush and floss twice daily to help take care of my teeth Well, this is probably a sensible argument because here your dentist is a relevant authority on the matter of how often you should brush your teeth It's relevant to appeal to what your dentist says because they're much more likely to know than we are What is the right strategy for taking care of your dental health? Okay, so that's appeals to authority the next type of appeal that we have to know about is the appeal to tradition Now this one says that something is traditional therefore. It's the right thing to do Or alternatively we've always done X therefore. We're right to do X now Okay, so to understand this kind of appeal You probably know that Women's salaries are unfortunately Typically lower than men's salaries Even if you look at people who are doing the same job You'll find that women that typically paid somewhat less than men And here's a graph which shows that low-paid women are paid around 10% less than low-paid men Whereas the highest paid women are paid about 20% less than the highest paid men and obviously this is something that we should regret but It would be ridiculous to say well It's traditional for women to be paid less than men women have always been paid less than men Therefore paying women less is the right thing to do Okay, that would be making an appeal to a tradition and obviously it's a ridiculous argument So here are some other examples of that Somebody might say sure. I believe in God people have believed in God for thousands of years So it seems clear that God must exist after all. Why else would the belief last so long and Hopefully you can see that this is a silly argument And you can't just say that there must be a God because it's been traditional to accept that fact In order to decide whether to believe that God should exist We should look at the arguments and decide if there's a strong reason to believe in God's existence Not merely point out that people have believed that for many many years Here's another example of an appeal to a tradition This argument says of course the monarchy is a good thing We've had a constitutional monarchy in this country for hundreds of years. What could be wrong with it? And obviously this isn't a good argument Just because we've had a monarchy for a long time doesn't mean it's the right thing In general just because something has been going on for a long period of time Doesn't mean it's the right thing to do It could be that it was always wrong and and so it's still wrong now Or it could be that it was right in the past, but it isn't right for us now Okay, let's move on to our next type of appeal which is the appeal to history This one says X has happened in the past Therefore X will happen again in the future For example an argument of this type might say Well the gap between the pay of men and women has been going down Quite considerably over the last few years for example in 1997 the gap was 17.4 percent But in 2010 it was only 10.2 percent So in the past the gap between the pay of men and women has decreased So somebody might argue well, it's clear that it will continue to decrease And in the future the gap will keep on narrowing and eventually men and women will be paid the same amount But that would be making an appeal to history It would be assuming that because something has happened in the past it will continue to happen in the future And actually that's wrong. It could be the gap between the pay of men and women won't continue to decrease Maybe it depends on the political environment the decisions that politicians take Or maybe it depends on what goes on in the workplace and the kind of workplace environment that we have In general just because something has happened in the past doesn't mean that it's going to carry on happening And doesn't mean that it will happen in the future So for example if somebody says Britain hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest for years So it's obvious that we will lose again next time That argument doesn't work just because Britain hasn't won it Doesn't mean that it won't win it this time Here's another argument invest for you's platinum fund has achieved a 15 percent or better return on investment every year for the past decade It's clear that invest for you is a safe bet for your investment Well again, this argument doesn't work Just because the Particular fund has managed to do so well for the last 10 years doesn't mean that it's going to do well this year Maybe the strategy that they've employed in the past won't be a good strategy for this time round Maybe the people who've managed this fund have left and it's new people running it this year Actually, I think that what actually goes on with these investment funds is that each company manages several of them And they pick the one that randomly happens to have performed the best when they write the adverts But anyway, the point is that Their past success doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to do well in future It's possible that the fact that they've done well in the past indicates a degree of expertise and That because of the expertise they may do well in future But that's a more complicated argument But what we can definitely say is that the mere fact that they've done well in the past Isn't going to mean that they're going to do well in the future Okay, the last type of appeal is the appeal to emotion And this happens when an argument uses emotion to persuade the audience to do something or believe something It could be all sorts of emotions. It could be envy fear hatred pity pride and so on So for example, this appeal is often made by politicians when they make arguments And they often appeal to the fear of something that's going to happen pride in their nation hatred of some kind of enemy And so on if you listen to political speeches, especially the type where politicians I get worked up into a bit of a frenzy. You'll see that they're appealing to all sorts of emotions But actually you get appealed to emotion in all sorts of contexts Here's an advert placed by the world wildlife fund Which I I suppose is intended to suggest that the rainforest is the lungs of the planet And we need our lungs to breathe and in the same way We need our rainforests to take the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere And then at the bottom it says before it's too late So clearly here the world wildlife fund is trying to make you afraid of what might happen in the future If the rainforest continues to be chopped down So here they're making an emotional appeal. They're appealing to your fear Now again emotional appeal. So sometimes acceptable. It's not always the case that An emotional appeal is an irrelevant one So to decide if it's relevant you have to think this Appeals to emotion are never relevant if you're being persuaded to believe something If you're supposed to be judging whether something is true Then any emotions you might have on the topic are not relevant But even if you are being persuaded to do something to take some action It still needs to be that the intended action is connected with what's triggering the emotion in some relevant way So thinking about the world wildlife fund advert again It's not totally clear what they're encouraging you to do But suppose that they're trying to get you to donate money to their charity So the advert is triggering fear about what would happen without the rainforest And they're trying to get you to give them money Now whether that's a relevant appeal depends upon whether there's a connection there and maybe there's not It may be that what they'll do with the money you give them Has nothing to do with the rainforest. It might get spent on their administration or on one of their other current projects And in that case the fear that you have To do with the rainforests Is completely irrelevant to what's then done with your money And so in that case they would be making an irrelevant appeal If on the other hand the money that you give them will have a direct effect on saving the rainforest Then in that case the fear that you have at the prospect of having less rainforest is Directly relevant to what they're encouraging you to do and so in that case it would be a relevant appeal So when somebody is using an emotional appeal to get you to do something You have to think about whether the emotion that you experience is connected with what they want you to do Let's look at some examples Somebody might say you must believe that god exists After all if you don't accept the existence of god, then you'll face the horrors of hell Okay, well, this is an emotional appeal. It's trying to make you afraid But it can't be a relevant one It must be a bad argument because the argument is about whether something is true whether god does really exist And the fear that you might experience at the prospect of hell It doesn't have any relevance here in order to decide whether god does really exist We need to look at some arguments and some evidence and make a rational decision And your emotions that you feel can't be relevant to that Another argument is you need to work harder on this essay. Well, it's likely you'll fail this course How would you feel then? in this case, I would suggest That the emotion that you might feel Some kind of fear maybe disappointment in yourself Those are relevant emotions Because you don't want to have those emotions later you want to avoid them And therefore they're relevant in considering what you should do It's probably right that you should work harder on the essay in order to avoid that bad outcome So this would be an example of a relevant emotional appeal Okay, I hope that explains the different kinds of appeal that you're expected to recognize just to remind you what they are There are appeals to popularity Appeals to authority To tradition To history And to emotion And if you need to remember all five of them the letters are p a t h e popularity authority tradition history emotion And that spells path a And if you've ever seen an old newsreel you might know that there was such a thing as path a news So that might help you to remember the five different types of appeal that you're expected to know So that's pretty much the end of my video about appeals Do remember that appeals aren't necessarily problematic Not all appeals are invalid So in some cases you need to think carefully about whether it's acceptable to make a particular appeal On the other hand a lot of the time appeals are problems with arguments And you should always be on the lookout for when somebody is making an appeal of some type And think about whether it's acceptable to do that Appeals are usually a bit of rhetoric that somebody is using to cheat And to persuade somebody to think something or persuade them to do something without actually giving them a particularly good reason Anyway, thank you very much for watching this video. I hope you found it helpful and I look forward to making the next one for you