Variety of Arguments on Societal Issues

Aristotle, in a section from Nicomachean Ethics, argues that there are certain basic steps which must be taken if an individual resistant to betterment is to be turned into a good citizen. In making that argument, he declares that "in general, passion seems to yield not to argument but to force" (6). In saying this, Aristotle commits the fallacy of false alternatives. Aristotle focus the reader on the words "argument" and "force" and deflects that reader from considering alternatives to these two limited choices.

Aristotle commits the fallacy of false alternatives because he wants to justify certain steps the state must take in order to produce good citizens. He is intent on describing a state where noble acts prevail, but he ignores the fact that passion can be channelled by leaders in ways other than rational argument or force and the fact that such situations often occur in fascist states such as Germany or Italy. Certainly both states used force, but Hitler and Mussolini came to power through irrational appeals to the intended nationalistic audiences---using neither force nor rational argument---but rather playing on the people's sense of frustration economically and as a result of the treaty after World War I. But Aristotle phrases the problem in such a way that the reader can be misled into believing that the two alternatives for dealing effectively with the people's passion are the only choices a leader has. Leaders can manipulate the people's passion with great succe

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argument, Parekh writes that the dominant culture is bad because it "only provides . . . education into the kind of culture that has become dominant in the West since the eighteenth century" (146). However, Parekh commits a genetic fallacy, judging Western education today in terms of its past context. Parekh commits this genetic fallacy perhaps because he believes that Western education has not gone far enough toward implementing multiculturalism. This belief may be true, but the author fails to appreciate enough the changes that have occurred in Western education in the last thirty years, changes which have certainly begun a long process which is helping bring about the very multiculturalism that the author recommends. Also, it is a process which will likely not be reversed but rather only expanded and intensified. Parekh probably commits this fallacy because he is from another culture himself, and is not profoundly aware of the great changes that have taken place in Western education. In addition, he comes from a culture which has been increasingly inundated by Western influences and may be emotionally affected by the fact that the West has not been as "Easternized" as much as the East has been Westernized. In addition, of cours

Category: Philosophy - V