Special Pleading.
Latin Name: Precipuus Oro
Definition: When standards or expectations are applied to people around a person, and yet they are exempt from those standards without any justified reasoning.
Syllogism:
1. Person A accepts standard(s) S and applies them to others in circumstance(s) C.
2. Person A is in C.
3. Therefore A is exempt from S.
Ex #1: Julie thinks for high marks in school, one must do their homework. Julie doesn’t do her homework all the time, yet she thinks that she should still get high marks in school. So therefore, she should not have to do her homework.
Ex #2: Person 1: If someone steals something, they should be punished for it.
Person 2: Wasn’t your best friend caught for theft, and you defended her?
Person 1: But she’s my best friend, so that’s a different story.
Why it’s fallacious: The standards and expectations that are set may not be agreed on or liked by everyone, but everyone does have to follow up with them. One specific person cannot fairly be removed from said standard simply because they personally do not like them.
So when used in an argument, one basically is saying that there is not equal consideration for everyone. They kind of use the argument that they themselves are “better” and therefore their argument should win against their opponent. Simply because they are not considered in the set of expectations or standards.
Personally, I wouldn’t really want to use this fallacy, because
Media Example: The actually article is 7 pages… so that might be a bit long. So I’m summing it up a lot!
After an Uruguayan model was told she could be world famous after loosing even more weight, she went on a strict eating diet and lost a lot of weight. Right after one of her shows, she admitted to not feeling well, and then dropped dead.
Many people began insisting that the preferred size of models was larger than a size zero, and while many people say that they agree with this, and fit auditions at an average of size 8, their magazine shoots won’t happen, because they’re regarded as too big in the photographs. Then the designers will be out of money, and they cannot have that. So they are “the exception.”
Links to info:
http://www.opifexphoenix.com/reasoning/fallacies/specialpleading.htm
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/special-pleading.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-405600/Are-size-zero-models-catwalk.html
(This is the link to the media example)
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