PHIL 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Weasel Word, Rhetorical Question, Critical Thinking

• School: Concordia University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 210
• Professor: Gregory Lavers

Document Summary

But now the speaker is not committed to justifying the claim that you should buy one. The speaker has placed the burden of proof on you to disprove the claim that you should buy a mazda: this is not a case of a simple stylistic choice. The use of a rhetorical question here is a questionable rhetorical move. In many arguments, much is not actually stated, but is presupposed. These two sentences report the same facts. But" works like and", except that it places emphasis on what comes after. So they both literally say that one boxer is sly and the other is far stronger. However, the rhetorical effect is clear in that they suggest very different things. For example: dave has to miss bowling tonight because he is going to dinner at his mother"s house, dave can"t make bowling tonight because he is eating dinner with his mommy.