Appeal to pity

Description

An appeal to pity a.k.a. Ad Misericordiam is a fallacy where one supports their claim with the intent of causing the emotion of pity in the place of real evidence.

Examples

• A theist mother claiming on her potential deathbed due to some medical problems, “Christ is the only way to true salvation, I want you to know that because I am not always going to be able to be here to tell you so. Why would I lie to you now as I lie here dying?”

• An office supervisor goes to fire an incompetent employee, who replies “You can't fire me! My wife left me last week, my dog just died and I have medical bills to pay!”

v · d Logical fallacies v · d Formal fallacies Propositional logic   Affirming a disjunct · Affirming the consequent · Argument from fallacy · False dilemma Quantificational logic   Existential fallacy · Illicit conversion · Proof by example · Quantifier shift Syllogistic   Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise · Exclusive premises · Necessity · Four-term Fallacy · Illicit major · Illicit minor · Undistributed middle v · d Faulty generalisations General   Begging the question · Gambler's fallacy · Slippery slope · Equivocation · argumentum verbosium Distribution fallacies   Fallacy of composition · Fallacy of division Data mining   Cherry picking · Accident fallacy · Spotlight fallacy · Hasty generalization · Special pleading Causation fallacies   Post hoc ergo propter hoc · Retrospective determinism · Suppressed correlative · Wrong direction Ontological fallacies   Fallacy of reification · Pathetic fallacy · Loki's Wager v · d False relevance Appeals   Appeal to authority · Appeal to consequences · Appeal to emotion · Appeal to motive · Appeal to novelty · Appeal to tradition · Appeal to pity · Appeal to popularity · Appeal to poverty · Appeal to spite · Appeal to wealth · Sentimental fallacy · Argumentum ad baculum Ad hominem   Ad hominem abusive · Reductio ad Hitlerum · Judgmental language · Straw man · Tu quoque Genetic Fallacies   Genetic fallacy · Chronological snobbery · Association fallacy · Appeal to tradition · Texas sharpshooter fallacy