An appeal to spite is a way for an individual to get "even" with another person to justify their reasoning for doing such actions. These actions are from bitterness and hatred towards the other person.
For example:
Megan: Jamie's birthday party is coming soon. Have you gotten anything for her?
Misao: I just ordered her gift on Ebay. I got her a Polaroid camera and films that she always wanted.
Tammy whispers to Misao: Dude, remember at your 20th birthday party, Jamie didn't even get you anything.. Why are you even bothering to get her one?
Tammy argues that Misao shouldn't buy a gift for Jamie's birthday because Jamie did not give a present to Misao when it was her birthday.
A stronger premise to this argument would be, "You should not give others gifts if they did not give one to you." Even so, I don't find this to a rational reason to justify not giving a gift. It's a bit selfish to me in my opinion. Just because Jamie didn't give Misao a gift on her birthday, it does not make it legitimately right for Misao to turn back and do the same thing to Jamie, instead it would be due to intentions of spite.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
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1 comments:
I would agree and disagree. There are times where the spite can be because not only did Jamie not buy a gift for Misao, but she also would not buy gifts for others. It could be just something where she was unable to afford them, but other times people just don't buy gifts because they'd rather keep their money for themselves instead of being generous to others. What makes it worse is if this person expects to receive gifts, but doesn't seem to ever do the same in return.
Lesson: Gifts should not be given because you expect something to be given back in return.
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