Appeal to Pity (Ad Misericordiam) / Irrelevant Conclusion

Example 1

A student who missed practically every class and did nothing outside class to master the material told me that if he failed the course he would probably be drafted into the army.

(Walton 1992, 262)

What exactly is the conclusion of the student’s argument? It appears to be something like, “You [the professor] should give me a passing grade.” What is the reason given? That the student will be drafted if this doesn’t happen. But does the latter support the conclusion? Let’s begin by noting that the reason the student gives is not what we might call logically relevant to the conclusion. That is, ordinary practice is to assign students grades based on their academic performance in the course. Thus, what a student should get is determined by his performance, not factors outside that performance. Thus, whatever results from the earned grade is not relevant to determining what the grade should be. The conclusion “You should give me a passing grade” is false as it relates to the student’s performance.

However, as it relates to the reason given by the student, namely, his being drafted if he fails, it may be true, not as it relates to his performance but as it relates to other considerations. For example, say the student knows that the professor is anti-war and against the draft, thinking it is immoral for anyone to be subjected to it. Given such commitments, the student may indeed give the professor reason to give him a passing grade. In this sense, the student is equivocating on the sense of “You should give me a passing grade.” On one reading of it, the “should” relates to what is deserved in relation to performance, and on the other, what needs to happen based on moral commitments. What makes this example fallacious is that the professor is talking about the grade from the standpoint of logic, but the student shifts from that standpoint, since it is a dead end for him in regard to getting a better grade, to the moral standpoint that war is bad and he shouldn’t be subjected to it. The latter considerations are not relevant to what grade should be given from the perspective of being the professor of the course in which a student performed so poorly. Thus, while it’s possible that the student has given a kind of moral reason to give him a passing grade, that is not the perspective under discussion.

Further, we might ask whether the student really intends the moral argument. He may not think at all of appealing to the professor’s anti-war sentiments (after all, he might not have any or the student may not be aware of them); instead, he may just fear death and want the professor to feel bad for him, pity him, and not want to be responsible for sending him to his death. If the latter is what is going on, then we can see even more clearly the problematic nature of such an appeal to pity. For even though assigning degrees of culpability is tricky, it would presumably strike many as perverse to claim that the professor’s giving the student the grade he has earned, which results in the student’s being drafted and, say, killed, caused the student to die.