Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Fallacies in Famous Speeches

In Patrick Henry's famous speech (ending in "Give me liberty or give me death!"), he uses many common fallacies as well as good reason. One fallacy-specifically, appeal to faith-was present when he said, "There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us." This is appeal to faith because it gets power from the beliefs of the listeners; those listening were very religious and their political beliefs would, Henry knew, be strengthened through the reference to faith. They were given more reason to believe that Henry's plan would work because it was what God wanted, giving much power to his argument.

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