For The Best

Thank You For Arguing has opened my eyes by showing me that rhetoric is truly found in every opinion and statement meant to persuade. Such influential people throughout history, like Gandhi, have used fallacies to get a point across and appeal to a greater audience. Even though fallacies are considered being fouls of rhetoric, it never fails to attract people form what is being proposed. I do not mean this in a negative way. I find that Gandhi's use of fallacies in London's Kingsley Hall was inspiring to all. Although hard to spot at first, further analysis of the text showed some examples of fallacies. 

The first fallacy I spotted was the straw man fallacy. Gandhi trails off his main topic to a side story about the village of Mysore. This showed how Gandhi uses a distraction to talk about what he knows better from his own experiences rather than his statements on how God is the right ruler. 

Tautology was also used mainly in his last paragraph. "Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. He is love. He is the supreme Good. But He is no God who merely satisfies the intellect, if He ever does. God to be God must rule the heart and transform it." Gandhi repeats in different ways how God is ultimately good.

Finally hasty generalization can be found when Gandhi states, "whereas humble and mute acceptance of divine authority makes life's journey easier even as the acceptance of earthly rule makes life under it easier." He uses too few examples to interpret that following God's divine authority will make life easier. He expresses very few facts and examples to back that opinion up. 

Nevertheless Gandhi uses these fallacies well to persuade his audience about God being the right choice to follow. His opinions of Him appeals to the audience of how great it seems to be under His control. Knowing about fallacies, I am eager to read more speechs by famous historical figures to identify their choice of manipulation.