16 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2022
    1. Ph.D., researched and wrote about marriage, bioethics, religious liberty and political philosophy.

      These details about the source (in addition to the website itself) would be interesting to dissect.

    1. sense

      Summary of evaluation: The eight white clergymen who wrote this letter to civil rights leaders missed an opportunity by not using the Rogerian structure. Classical oration left their audience feeling not heard and not understood. This combined with only first-hand qualitative evidence and several insulting logical fallacies makes for a letter just asking for Martin Luther King's scathing response.

  2. Dec 2021
    1. calm manner in which these demonstrations have been handled

      Ambiguity fallacy: Calling the management of protests "calm" when most of the nation has seen fire hoses and police dogs is part of what undermined the clergymen's argument. They may have seen a calm response prior to April 12, but the nation saw violence afterward.

    2. e also point out that such actions as incite to hatred and violence, however technically peaceful those actions may be, have not contributed to the resolution of our local problems

      Tu quoque: Blaming nonviolent protesters for "inciting hatred and violence" basically blames the victims of racism for the hatred of racists.

    3. Summary of evaluation: The eight white clergymen who wrote this letter to civil rights leaders missed an opportunity by not using the Rogerian structure. Classical oration left their audience feeling not heard and not understood. This combined with only first-hand qualitative evidence and several insulting logical fallacies makes for a letter just asking for Martin Luther King's scathing response.

    4. hen rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets

      (Toulmin method) Assumptions: Legal action will result in "correct" or just rulings. People can wait for courts to decide justice

    5. We commend

      Conclusion

    6. We do not believe that these days of new hope are days when extreme measures are justified in Birmingham

      Claim of value

    7. these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.

      Claim of value

    8. However

      Refutation (counterclaim and rebuttal)

    9. ecent public events

      Confirmation Bias: Selecting the one recent success as evidence that no action is needed (and ignoring lots of evidence that not much has changed).

    10. problems

      Confirmation (evidence to support claims) First-hand qualitative evidence

    11. We

      Aristotelian structure Narration (background)

    12. racial problems

      Ambiguity: not race causing the problems, but racism

    13. face facts.

      Begging the question: Calling subjective details "facts" is dubious evidence upon which to make any claim of value.

    14. Unity
      • S: eight white clergymen in Alabama (not segregationists)
      • P: discourage protests of segregation in Birmingham
      • A: civil rights leaders, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Dr. King, etc.)
      • C: April 12, 1963, Birmingham, AL [segregated southern states lived with "whites only" and "blacks only" signs and rules for businesses, jobs, and facilities]
      • E: planned protests of segregation in Birmingham