What is the major logical fallacy in "A Modest Proposal"?
The problem in "A Modest Proposal" is the many Irish poor who are a drag on the economics of the state, according to the narrator. He describes starving women who are trailed by young children they cannot feed or care for and are forced to beg. He explains a situation in which the mass of the Irish cannot get ahead because of high rents and prices. He explains that the only outlet for many is high-risk emigration through joining the army of another country or putting themselves into indentured servitude. The speaker also notes that it is unpleasant watching all the poor suffering and starving.
The narrator, however, is focused on bean counting. The human suffering of the poor takes a backseat to the fact that they lower the overall wealth of the nation by not being able to earn money. Their main problem, in his view, is...
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that they are not financially self sufficient. This worldview also dictates the terms of his proposal: he is so fixated on seeing the poor solely as economic widgets whose main goal should be to add to the wealth of the state that he has no idea of how inhumane his proposal is.
However, this supposed ignorance is Swift's entire point in this piece: the wealthy landowners have become so blind to the suffering of their poor Irish tenants that they no longer see them as human beings, only as economic assets. In doing so, Swift offers a scathing satire of the conditions under which the Irish are made to suffer.
Which quotes from A Modest Proposal show an illogical argument and create satire?
According to the narrator in Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, his argument that 100,000 Irish children should be sold each year for food is perfectly logical. Although we would likely disagree, Swift is using his outrageous argument to reveal the lack of logic in the claims and actions of many people of his day. Let's look at this in more detail.
The narrator presents his argument in a highly logical fashion, moving from point to point to meet objections as well as set up for his proposal. He begins with a description of the beggars and their children, speaks of the advantages his plan will bring, gets into the numbers of children available, and then drops his bombshell.
Yet at the same time, this argument, as logically as it is presented and as illogical as it is in reality, reveals the illogical actions and thoughts of Swift's contemporaries. Notice how, as the narrator admits that “this food will be somewhat dear,” he says that the landlords, “have already devoured most of the parents,” and they “seem to have the best title to the children.” Here is part of the satire. The landlords charge exorbitant rents, far out of the realm of logic or reality, and their tenants often cannot pay. This is part of what Swift is trying to expose with his proposal.
The narrator later mentions how a friend of his has a refinement to the proposal. The deer of the kingdom are being destroyed by hunters, and the narrator's friend suggests that these deer be replaced “by the bodies of young lads and maidens” between twelve and fourteen years old. They are “now ready to starve for want of work and service,” the narrator adds. He also mentions “several plump young girls in this town” who “cannot stir abroad without a chair” and go about in their fineries being entertained. Losing them, he concludes, “would not be the worse” for the kingdom. Here is satire at its finest.
The narrator also provides six advantages to his scheme, laying them out one by one in a perfectly logical fashion. Each reveals the illogical nature of society. The sixth, for instance, speaks of marriage and how men would treat their wives so much better if their infants were a source of income.
Toward the end of the proposal, the narrator presents several real ideas about correcting the abuses in his country. These he presents as totally illogical since no one will follow them, but in reality, they are the most logical arguments of all and the real solutions that Swift wants to propose.