Argument and passion: is moving the feelings a legitimate part of proof, or a substitute for it?

George Campbell, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

The position in brief

Passion is not the enemy of argument but the only thing that carries a conclusion into action. What is illegitimate is passion raised on a false view of the object, not passion as such.12

Sources

  1. Indeed, when the hearers are rude and ignorant, nothing more is necessary in the speak er than to inflame their passions. They will not require that the coimexion between the conduct he urges and the end pro posed be evinced to them. His word will satisfy. And there fore bold affirmations are made to supply the place of rea- sons.
    The Philosophy of Rhetoric
  2. You assure me, "It is for my honour." Now you solicit my pride, wiih- out which I had never been able to understand the word. You say, " It is for rny interest." Now you bespeak my self-love. " It is for the public good." Now you ro'ise m> 100 THE PHILOSOPHY OF RHETORIC. patriotism. " It will relieve the miserable." Now you touch my pity.
    The Philosophy of Rhetoric

Where the argument is made

  • The Philosophy of Rhetoric I.7 (the connexion of argument and passion), I.9-11 (the vivacity of ideas, and the circumstances that raise emotion)

How the argument was received

Argued as a corrective to a philosophy that had made feeling the opposite of reason.