Hey what’s up guys! Kathy Gibbens here…
Let’s start off today’s episode with a quick review of a fallacy we’ve already covered here on the podcast: The Middle Ground Fallacy states that the truth can be found at the middle point between two extreme arguments. It says that a compromise between two extreme arguments will be the right answer. But, is the middle ground always the right answer? You can probably guess that it’s not.
If you find yourself faced with a Middle Ground Fallacy, the question to ask yourself is this: “Is this solution backed by real evidence or is it just a compromise?”
If you want to hear more about the Middle Ground fallacy, go back & check out Episode 32.
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Today’s new fallacy is called the Pathetic Fallacy. I know, it kind of makes me chuckle, too. A Pathetic Fallacy happens when someone attributes human emotion and actions to things found in nature that aren’t actually human. While it may be a thinking error, it’s also, and I would say, probably more commonly, a literary device that authors & artists use to paint interesting word pictures. The word Pathetic in this sense isn’t referring to being miserable or totally lame-o, it’s actually taken from the Greek word ‘Pathos’, which means ‘experience’ or ‘emotion’.
For instance, The phrase “weeping willow” is an example of the pathetic fallacy, since it sounds like the tree is sad or dejected, which of course is not true – it just looks that way to our eyes.
Or here’s an example from Robert Frost’s poem, “Birches”:
“They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.”
In this poem, Frost is imagining a forest of swaying birch trees & he imagines them “trailing their leaves on the ground like girls on hands and knees.” While some might see the trees bent over and get a sad feeling, the narrator in this poem compares them to a happy image of girls drying their hair in the sun.
In another example, you can probably think of different Disney films that often use pathetic fallacy examples, such as gathering storms to signify that something is going wrong, or chirping birds when things are happy & hopeful.
As a literary device, there’s really nothing wrong with using a Pathetic Fallacy. It’s simply a way to make nature come alive in a new way. But a Pathetic Fallacy isn’t always a good thing when it’s applied to other areas, such as science.
In the hard sciences, a Pathetic Fallacy is seen as an error in thinking. For example, we’ve all probably heard the phrase, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Does nature really HATE anything? No, of course it doesn’t. It can’t. That’s a human emotion and nature isn’t a human and therefore can’t feel the emotion of hate. This phrase is used to help us imagine a difficult scientific concept by putting it into human terms.
Or, someone could say, “When the air gets hot, it wants to rise.” Hmm..does the air really have WANTS? Is it choosing to rise b/c it thinks it’s fun? Obviously, no. This is another example of Pathetic Fallacy in science where it’s just considered bad thinking.
Here’s another example of a Pathetic Fallacy from advertising. “Great milk comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California.” (Real California Milk TV Commercial). Now, can cows actually feel the emotion of “happy”? Well, that’s a subject of a lot of debate, lol…some people think animals can feel emotions the same way humans do, and some don’t think they can. Depending on where you land on that argument, you may see this as being a Pathetic Fallacy.
Most of the time, a Pathetic Fallacy isn’t really an error in thinking, it’s just used to make things sound more interesting or relatable, or to convey a certain feeling or emotion. But I’m still going to give you a question to ask yourself when you come across it: “Is that *part of nature* really feeling that way or are they trying to make ME feel that way?” *repeat*
There is another fallacy that is very closely related to the Pathetic Fallacy called Personification. I’ll talk about the difference between these two fallacies in the next episode.
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”