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Argumentum ad baculum (Latin for "argument to the cudgel" or "appeal to the stick") is the fallacy committed when one makes an appeal to force[1] to bring about the acceptance of a conclusion.[2][3][4] One participates in argumentum ad baculum when one emphasizes the negative consequences of holding the contrary position, regardless of the contrary position's truth value—particularly when the argument-maker himself causes (or threatens to cause) those negative consequences. It is a special case of the appeal to consequences.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy gives this example of argumentum ad baculum:
- If you don't join our demonstration against the expansion of the park, we will evict you from your apartment;
- So, you should join our demonstration against the expansion of the park.[5]
The phrase has also been used to describe the 1856 caning of Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Senator, by one of his pro-slavery opponents, Preston Brooks, on the floor of the United States Senate.[6]
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