Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Practice and Principle

A nice quote on ad baculum arguments:

Practice meets principle in ad baculum, though practice, not principle, is, in many cases, the primary aim of the arguer.

[Michael J. Wreen, "A Bolt of Fear," Philosophy & Rhetoric, Vol. 22, No. 2 (1989), p. 138.]

I just came across Wreen's paper, a bit belatedly, and it's very much worth reading; I think it's a bit loose in parts, but it is certainly a work that should be read by those interested in some of the traditional fallacies.