[MAJOR UPDATE: I have changed "Woo" to "Pitch" everywhere on the website and on this post due to extensive feedback from everyone. Thanks!]
I'm adding rhetorical-device/common-argument/argument-fallacy tags to the expert quotes on TakeOnIt and calling them "pitches".
The list of pitches so far is here.
Arguments have common patterns. The most notorious of these are rhetorical devices and argument fallacies. While these techniques are obviously not new and are published on several sites on the internet, they are woefully under appreciated by most people. I contend that this is partly because:
- Argument fallacies and rhetorical devices can be too general. Most of their real-world usage occurs in a larger number of specialized forms. These specialized forms are often unlabeled yet are intuitively recognized and prey on our cognitive biases. It takes a lot of cognitive energy to consciously connect the general form(s) to the specialized form.
- The sites about argument fallacies and rhetorical devices are not integrated with debate sites. A google for argument fallacies will give you pages with stagnant lists of fallacies where each one has perhaps a couple of historical or hypothetical applications of the fallacy. Why can't I see every debate where some expert or influential person used that fallacy, and why can't I see every fallacy used in a debate?
To solve these problems, I'm introducing the concept of a "pitch". Any quote from an expert or influential person on TakeOnIt can now be tagged with a pitch. A pitch is a label for a commonly used argument or strategy to persuade. You can think of pitches as the "tv tropes of argumentation". Here's some examples:
"The Consensus Pitch"
"The Patriot Pitch"
"The Convert Pitch"
Pitches encompass both argument fallacies and rhetorical devices. However, they allow for greater specialization. For example, there is the "The Evil Corporation Pitch". On a more minor note, I personally think the names should be simple and ideally guessable from the name alone (e.g. maybe it's just me, but "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" feels like it has some Web 2.0 marketing issues).
Eliezer's "Conversation Halters" and Robin Hanson's "Contrarian Excuses" are good candidates for pitches. (My impression is the "halters" and "excuses" listed are perhaps too specialized for pitches, but in any case at minimum provide fertile material for pitches.)
I only implemented this feature over the last few days and before developing the concept further I'd like to get some feedback.
I know there is a certain amount of poetry to it but I know a 1 year old who refers to 'woos' quite frequently and the name, particularly in the context of 'undesirable persuasive crap' just doesn't sound right.
Even apart from sounding like potty talk I had associated the term 'woo' with a somewhat different. I admittedly haven't been exposed to a culture that used the term woo frequently but it seems to fit better as "that is woo" than "that is a woo" and "those are woos". This is perhaps because I associated it with the term 'bullshit'. A different technical meaning but a similar grammatical class.
(I don't actually object to using technical terms for specific kinds of bad thinking and communication strategies. Woo has its place somewhere.)