Good Listening

Logical arguments in Latin began will over 2,000 years ago and faded along with the Roman Empire several centuries later. An interesting contribution to the world of today remains in the structures of human argument as follows:

Argumentum:

• ad hominem – the appeal to personal prejudice
• ad populum – an appeal to mass emotions
• ad misericordiam – an appeal through the exploitation to pity
• ad baculum – the application of brute forces – “to the club.”
• ad crumenam – an appeal to money, “the purse.”
• ad verecundiam – the playing up of prejudice
• ad ignorantiam – stress upon ignorance
• ad captandum vulgus – a dishonest argument to “catch the crowd.”