The ad baculum fallacy, also known as the fear appeal, is a common tactic in verbal arguments where fear is used to end a debate. It can be used to infer consequences, but does not address moral and ethical considerations. It is encountered in daily life, such as in religion, the workplace, and education.
Of all the logical fallacies employed in verbal arguments, one of the most despised, yet common, is the fear appeal, formally called the ad baculum fallacy. The Latin translation for ad baculum is “to argue with a stick.” Using this typically fallacious debate tactic generally involves abandoning attempts to win a debate in favor of using a fear tactic to end the cold-blooded argument. In the field of formal logic, the ad baculum fallacy usually follows a fairly formulaic approach:
If A agrees with B, then C; There is a bad, bad thing; the adoption of B is the winning approach.
The ad baculum fallacy is used to infer consequences in common, or even disastrous, ways. In response to a child who says, “It’s not unhealthy if I eat just one more cookie,” a parent may retort with, “Go away or I’ll never give you a cookie again.” In response to an oppressed citizen declaring, “We are not treated with dignity,” a ruling power may respond in word and deed: “Go home or suffer the consequences.”
However, not all ad baculum claims are in error. The argument could be an allusion to fear or threatened consequences that will indeed happen if the actor’s main statement is carried out. For example, if a person breaks the law, it could be said that she will be fined or jailed if caught. Since people generally don’t like losing money or spending time in jail, it can be argued that breaking the law is something to be avoided. This argument would be logical, but still ad baculum, as it does not attempt to address the deeper moral and ethical considerations related to criminal behavior.
People encounter the ad baculum fallacy in many aspects of daily life. Agnostics argue that believers of several organized religions fall prey to the ad baculum fallacy when they commit their belief to the unknown, but only after being informed of the damnation that awaits unbelievers. Believers, by contrast, view this submission as the cornerstone of their belief in a higher power. A manager may argue that losing a job should be reason enough to address a particularly unpopular aspect of the workplace. A student may say, “Learning each of the 42 logical fallacies is overkill,” to which the teacher may retort, “Know them all and get an A; just know a few and get an F.”
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