Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis

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The phrase pathetic fallacy is a literary term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to things found in nature that are not human. It is a kind of personification that occurs in poetic descriptions, when, for example, clouds seem sullen, when leaves dance, or when rocks seem indifferent. These delineations include not only the ignorance of the right reasoning standard but also the ignorance of relevant properties of the context. Such a fallacy may have been the less perceived, as most of the popular governments of antiquity were of the democratic species; and even in modern Europe, to which we owe the great principle of representation, no example is seen of a government wholly popular, and founded, at the same time, wholly on that principle.

HubSpot Blog 16 Common Logical Fallacies and How to Spot Them - HubSpot Blog

There are several reasons for a slippery slope to be fallacious: for example, the argument is going too far into the future, it is a too complex argument whose structure is hard to identify, or the argument makes emotional appeals. In this excerpt, Victor describes a small island retreat in Scotland where he has been driven against his will. Example: There must be fairies living in our attic because nobody’s ever proven that there aren’t fairies living in our attic. Phallacy plunges readers into the wild and wacky world of animal genitalia while exploring the social and cultural significance of penises as symbols of power and identity.It gives human attributes to abstract ideas, animate objects of nature, or inanimate non-natural objects. Earnshaw’s death, the “violent thunderstorm” on the night Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights, and the stormy weather outside when Cathy makes a choice between Heathcliff and Edgar indicates her inner turmoil. There are always two parties to an argument containing a fallacy: the perpetrator and the intended victim. I’ve always felt that ‘pathetic fallacy’ is a somewhat negative term for personification / anthropomorphism. Willingham notes that history, science and culture have overemphasized the role of the member in our lives.

Pathetic Fallacy - Literary Devices Examples and Definition of Pathetic Fallacy - Literary Devices

According to Whately, logical fallacies are arguments where the conclusion does not follow from the premises. A false dilemma, also known as a false dichotomy, claims there are only two options in a given situation. The term non sequitur denotes a general formal fallacy, often meaning one that does not belong to any named subclass of formal fallacies, like affirming the consequent. There was in this scheme too much of fallacy to satisfy one who utterly detested every species of falshood or dishonesty: nor would he, indeed, have submitted to put it in practice, had he not been involved in a distressful situation, where he was obliged to be guilty of some dishonour, either to the one lady or the other; and surely the reader will allow, that every good principle, as well as love, pleaded strongly in favour of Sophia. A red herring is an attempt to shift focus from the debate at hand by introducing an irrelevant point.Therefore, “ Wuthering Heights” means uproarious and aggressive weather that represents the nature of its residents.

FALLACY | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

While appeals to authority are by no means always fallacious, they can quickly become dangerous when you rely too heavily on the opinion of a single person — especially if that person is attempting to validate something outside of their expertise. Pathetic fallacy also functions to help readers create simple and clear connections between what they are reading an emotion that they may have personally experienced. Only time will tell if the meaning of, “pathetic fallacy,” may have to be re-written or even lost, as an archaic anachronism. This word comes in handy when discussing argonauts, cephalopods also known as paper nautiluses, which use an arm as a detachable mating device, or extinct types of mites, in which the females used a “copulatory tube” to pick up sperm from the males.Willingham wants to know how the organ rose to such cultural prominence and what the consequences are for us today.

FALLACY | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary FALLACY | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary

But when we compare our species to the wild diversity of life, the human penis is comparatively un-remarkable, making our infatuation seem even more misplaced. In other cases, like with the tiger flatworm, they can play both roles: each flatworm gives and receives sperm from its partner.Hence, under the pragmatic approach, each case needs to be analyzed individually to determine whether the argument is fallacious or reasonable. Hence, measurement-based value claims premised on the uniform quality of all citations may be questioned on false analogy grounds. But it is thus with human calculations, The propositions seem plausible, and the reasoning fair, while stern truth lies behind all to level the pride of understanding, and prove the fallacy of the wisdom of men. Recognizing fallacies can develop reasoning skills to expose the weaker links between premises and conclusions to better discern between what appears to be true and what is true.