The verb to appeal comes from appellāre, a Latin word that can be translated as “to call”. The concept is used to name the action of resorting to a person or an entity that, by its wisdom, its discernment or its authority, is in a position to solve or resolve an issue.
For example: “I am going to appeal to the president of the company to see if he can help me with this problem”, “I do not have to appeal to anyone, I can resolve the matter on my own”, “If the government does not reverse its decision, we are going to appeal to human rights organizations ”.
The most common use of the notion is found in the judicial field. Appeal, in this context, means going to a court or a judge of a higher court to reverse a decision made by a lower stratum.
Appeal is a procedural resource that seeks to have the superior court rectify a lower one’s ruling, always acting in accordance with the provisions of the law. An appeal appears when one of the parties to a dispute does not agree with the decision of a court or a judge. Faced with this situation, he decides to appeal to a higher body to review the ruling and, should he find any flaws, be responsible for correcting it with a new sentence. When it is no longer possible appeal, it is said that the sentence is firm.
In the same way, we cannot ignore that, within what is logic, a term or expression is used that includes the verb that we are dealing with now. We are referring to appealing to emotions.
That expression we have to expose that it is a fallacy (an argument that seems valid but is not) with which it is intended to try to manipulate the emotions of the person in front of them. In this way, you opt for that resource instead of using a real and true, valid argument, in order to hide something.
Furthermore, we cannot forget that there are several types of fallacy that use the verb at hand. Specifically, among them we can highlight:
-Appeal to ridicule, which consists of exposing the arguments of the other person as laughable.
-Appeal to the consequences. It is basically about being able to answer the argument of another person by making use of the exposition of the negative or positive consequences that may have.
-Appeal to fear. Within the realm of logic, this fallacy is used on numerous occasions, which consists of making use of lies and deceit to support an argument or position. Basically what is pursued when undertaking this is to increase the fear and prejudice of the person to whom the aforementioned is addressed. An example of the above would be the following sentence: “If you do not act right now, then it will be too late.”
The idea of appealing is also used, in a broad sense, as a synonym for invoking or demanding: “The president tried to appeal to the emotions of the citizens by asking for their support”, “The pro-government candidate seeks to appeal to fear so that the People continue to support their political project. ”
