{"id":4727,"date":"2021-10-17T18:53:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T16:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/?p=4727"},"modified":"2025-03-29T21:28:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T20:28:46","slug":"calm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/calm\/","title":{"rendered":"Calm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Appeal to CALM<\/span>
\nAD QUIETEM<\/em> Argument<\/span><\/h1>\n

Calm<\/strong> is the emotional and cognitive state of a person who has no cause for concern, especially when there is no urgent issue to address.
\nSerious argumentative situations are inherently tense. For argumentative2<\/sub><\/a> people, the jolt of adrenaline is welcome. For more peaceful people, this tension can be difficult to deal with, and they may wish to get out of the situ as quickly as possible in order to restore their previous, real or imagined, calm.
\nThe burden of proof can be seen as the price the proponent pays for disturbing the peace of the group.<\/p>\n

1. Calm and emotionality<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Aristotelian list of socio-rhetorical emotions contrasts calm with anger, see Emotion<\/a>. In fact, calm can be contrasted with any strong emotion, whether positive (joy) or negative (anger). Strong emotions are characterized by a marked variation in arousal. Specific actions, speeches and arguments can be used to reduce such arousal and restore a calmer mood, i.e. to calm over-excited people, be they a group of enthusiasts enraged by the prospect of war, or children throwing a tantrum.<\/p>\n

2. Appeal to tranquility<\/span><\/h2>\n

In the political sphere, the appeal to calm was identified and called the ad quietem<\/em> argument by Bentham (1824; Political Arguments<\/a>,\u00a0 \u00a72) . The Latin word quietem<\/em> is the accusative form of quies<\/em>, \u201crest; in politics,<\/em> peaceful period; neutrality.\u201d
\nThe argument is defined as an attempt to postpone the discussion of a proposal in the hope that the issue will never be raised. The basic appeal to calm discourse takes the following form:<\/p>\n

This issue is not that important, it’s already settled, we have other priorities, we’ll discuss it later, you’re the only one who sees it as a problem…
\nLeave us alone with these things\/your obsessions!<\/p>\n

The discussion itself is replaced by a meta-discussion about the relevance and timing of the discussion.<\/p>\n

Bentham sees this maneuver as a fallacy, and places it in the category of ‘fallacies of delay’, directed against freedom of proposal and political innovation.
\nIn the context of the debate on the organization of the agenda, this move may be perfectly correct. Of course, when voted, the agenda can be attacked for its poor management of urgencies.<\/p>\n

The appeal to tranquility<\/em> values calm as the ideal of a peaceful conservative social state, which may be on the side of apathy, inertia and laziness. Dissatisfied proponents, ready to argue for innovations and changes, possibly speaking in the best common interest, are framed as troublemakers, generating negative adrenaline, that is, anger and anxiety within the group.<\/p>\n

Tranquility may be used as an argument for not participating in political and social life:<\/p>\n

Voting only concerns men, since women \u2014 fortunately for their tranquility [Fr tranquillit\u00e9<\/em>] \u2014 have no political rights.<\/span>
\nClarisse Juranville, [Handbook of Moral Education and Civic Education<\/em>], [1911].<\/span>[1]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The following interventions are taken from a debate on immigration and French nationality, a very topical issue at the time. At the very beginning of the discussion, A<\/strong>, a student, first alludes to the leaflets distributed to the students, then gives a description of the two parties and their positions. Depending on the position of the reader, this description is described as biased or carefully aligned (co-oriented) with her position, which will be openly stated later in the interaction.
\nFinally, on the basis of a perfect \u00ab\u00a0leave us alone\u00a0\u00bb argumentation, she takes a still implicit but quite clear position in favor of the second party who thinks that limits should be imposed, and would, at a minimum, prefer to postpone the whole discussion. \u00ab\u00a0the government has other priorities at the moment, which are more important, and that it [is] not necessary to reopen this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof \u2014then you say nothing you remain mute\/ you have learned nothing from all this, nothing has struck you\/ \u2014 what are the points\/ \u2014 so let’s start listing them\\ you can give them\/ yes\/
\n<\/em>A \u2014 already two points of view actually, finally<\/em>
\nProf \u2014 there are two points of view you have seen that there were yes\/
\n<\/em>A \u2014 two opposing parties, well those who want to – like the petition of all the screen actors and filmmakers and so on who want: im- well the nationality code to be unlimited\\ and that all the undocumented people be regularized\\ so hmm without any limit.<\/em>
\nProf \u2014\u00a0<\/em>hm hm hm hm hm (1)
\nA \u2014\u00a0and the second point of view is those who say that for there to be a right of the people there must be:: a right of the state\\ therefore there must be limits and that:: and also these people are those who say that the government currently has other priorities that are more important and that it wasn’t necessary to go back to that point.<\/em>
\nProf \u2014\u00a0<\/em>OK (1)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

(1) Ratifies the previous speaking turn, without taking a stand.
\nCorpus on immigration and French nationality, student workshop. [2].<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Quoted after Clarisse Juranville (1826-1906), Manuel d\u2019\u00e9ducation morale et d\u2019instruction civique<\/em> [Moral and Civic Education Handbook]<\/em>, Paris: Vve P. Larousse.
\nQuoted after the 5e<\/sup>\u00a0ed., 1re<\/sup> part \u00c9ducation morale<\/em> [Moral Education]; chap. Le vote<\/em> [The Vote]; \u00a7 Les femmes et la politique <\/em>[Women and Politics]. No Date. No pag.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Corpus D\u00e9bats sur l’immigration \u2014 Participants: \u00b4\u00b4\u00c9tudiants, Professeur<\/em> [Corpus corresponding to a classroom debate on immigration \u2014 Participants: Students Teacher]. CLAPI database, http:\/\/clapi.univ-lyon2.fr\/V3_Feuilleter.pdhp? Num_corpus = 35] (07-30-2013).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appeal to CALM AD QUIETEM Argument Calm is the emotional and cognitive state of a person who has no cause for concern, especially when there is no urgent issue to address. Serious argumentative situations are inherently tense. For argumentative2 people, the jolt of adrenaline is welcome. For more peaceful people, this tension can be difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4727"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13855,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions\/13855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icar.cnrs.fr\/dicoplantin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}