Appeal to motive is a pattern of argument which consists in challenging a thesis by calling into question the motives of its proposer. It can be considered as a special case of the
ad hominem circumstantial argument. As such, this type of argument may be an
informal fallacy
Informal fallacies are a type of incorrect argument in natural language. The source of the error is not just due to the ''form'' of the argument, as is the case for formal fallacies, but can also be due to their ''content'' and ''context''. Fall ...
.
A common feature of appeals to motive is that only the possibility of a motive (however small) is shown, without showing the motive actually existed or, if the motive did exist, that the motive played a role in forming the argument and its conclusion. Indeed, it is often assumed that the mere possibility of motive is evidence enough.
Examples
* "That website recommended ACME's widget over Megacorp's widget. But the website also displays ACME advertising on their site, so they were probably biased in their review." The thesis in this case is the website's evaluation of the relative merits of the two products.
* "The referee is a New York City native, so his refereeing was obviously biased towards New York teams." In this case, the thesis consists of the referee's rulings.
* "My opponent argues on and on in favor of allowing that mall to be built in the center of town. What he won't tell you is that his daughter and her friends plan to shop there once it's open."
Examples of 2 sides using "appeal to motive" on the same issue:
* The Democrats want to impeach a President for withholding aid until he received a "personal favor" with Ukraine, and to "dig up dirt on a political opponent". The witnesses however admit this to be "speculation" and "presumption".
* "The Democrats wanted to impeach the President long before this Ukraine thing came out, so this Ukraine thing cannot be anything more than a hoax that comes from their sheer hatred of the President."
See also
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Bulverism
Bulverism is a type of ad hominem rhetorical fallacy that combines circular reasoning and the genetic fallacy with presumption or condescension. The method of Bulverism is to "assume that your opponent is wrong, and explain his error." The Bulver ...
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Call-out culture
Cancel culture, or rarely also known as call-out culture, is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—whether it be online, on ...
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Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
* ''
Cui bono''
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Race card
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Shooting the messenger
"Shooting the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of blaming the bearer of bad news.
Until the advent of modern telecommunication, messages were usually delivered by human envoys. For example, in war, a messenger would ...
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Woman card
The woman card is an idiomatic phrase that refers to exploitation of either sexist or pro-female attitudes by accusing others of sexism or misogyny. A person exploiting such attitudes is said to be playing the woman card, gender card .
Meaning ...
References
{{Fallacies
Genetic fallacies