Résumés
Abstract
The rhetorical function of whataboutism is to redirect attention from the specific case at hand. Although commonly used as a rhetorical move, whataboutisms can appear in arguments. These tend to be weak arguments and are often instances of the tu quoque fallacy or other fallacies of relevance. In what follows, I show that arguments involving a whataboutist move can take a wide variety of forms, and in some cases, they can occur in good arguments. I end by considering how whataboutist arguing in social justice contexts can be harmful to arguers and to the audiences for their arguments.
Keywords:
- fallacy of relative privation,
- false dilemma,
- false equivalence,
- implicit bias,
- red herring fallacy,
- social justice,
- tu quoque fallacy,
- whataboutism
Résumé
La fonction rhétorique du qu’en-est-ilisme est de détourner l'attention du cas spécifique en question. Bien qu'ils soient couramment utilisés comme mouvement rhétorique, les qu’en-est-ilismes peuvent apparaître dans les arguments. Ceux-ci ont tendance à être des arguments faibles et sont souvent des exemples de l'erreur tu quoque ou d'autres erreurs de pertinence. Dans ce qui suit, je montre que les arguments impliquant un mouvement qu’en-est-iliste peuvent prendre une grande variété de formes, et dans certains cas, ils peuvent se produire dans de bons arguments. Je termine en considérant comment l'argumentation qu’en-est-iliste dans des contextes de justice sociale peut être préjudiciable à ceux qui avancent des arguments et au public pour leurs arguments.
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Bibliography
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