Journal 5- Thomas Paine

Journal #5 – from Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” (p.95-6)

1. Identify the specific argument that Paine is making in each paragraph.  For each of the arguments, identify whether Paine is making an emotional, ethical, or logical appeal and suggest an effective counterargument.

          #1

          #2

          #3

          #4 Paine is saying that it is ok to fight when your enemy is a thief and stealing your livelihood from you. As long as you are fighting in self-defense the war is justified. Paine is making an emotional and logical appeal to the American people by saying that if you were to be attacked you would fight back. A counter- argument would be that the British are very strong, much stronger than the colonies and if the colonies were to fight them many people would get killed and if they lost Britain would punish them harshly.

2. Can you identify any of the logical fallacies that we discussed in Paine’s arguments?  If so, which ones?  Overall, what do you feel are the strengths and weaknesses of Paine’s arguments?   

Paine makes a false analogy about Great Britain. Comparing them to thieves that burn and pillage when really it is just tax. This is kind of misleading to the reader.

I feel that the strong points of Paine’s argument are that he is able to appeal the emotional sides of his reader’s minds but he failed to mention that there will be terrible sacrifices when the colonies stand up to, and fight against Britain.