Prince Philip is a philanderer

The argument

Prince Philip is a deceitful philanderer who cheated on Queen Elizabeth on multiple occasions. In 1948, a photographer named Baron Nahum introduced Prince Philip to Patricia Kirkwood, a young showgirl. They met in Kirkwood’s dressing room at the London Hippodrome before Kirkwood’s performance. This meeting allegedly involved dinner and dancing all night, leaving Elizabeth at home alone and eight months pregnant. After this meeting, Philip and Kirkwood met on at least seven more occasions. While Kirkwood continually denied any affair until her death, Philip never cleared her name. Since Prince Philip never denied the rumors, this makes it obvious that he lied about his relationship with Kirkwood. Therefore, Prince Philip is a philanderer. Furthermore, Prince Philip has involved himself in the lives of other women throughout his marriage to Queen Elizabeth. In 1957, the Baltimore Sun released a story that Prince Philip was allegedly involved in an illicit relationship with an unnamed woman. Beyond these two affairs, the public accused Prince Philip of romantic connections to other performers like Helene Cordet, Merle Oberon, and Anna Massey. With the number of accusations related to Prince Philip’s connections to women, there is obviously some truth in the allegations. This means that Prince Philip was unfaithful to his marriage and engaged in some sort of philanderous relationship.

Premises

Counter-arguments

While Prince Philip never officially denied allegations, this does not mean that he was involved in any affairs. Since he is constantly under the scrutiny of the public eye, it is expected for news sources to accuse Philip of his relationship with other women. When journalists interviewed Philip about the accusations, he asked how he could ever go anywhere without security watching his every move. Over 50 years have passed, and nobody has found any concrete evidence that supports the illicit allegations of Prince Philip. Therefore, Philip should not be seen as a philanderer but as a faithful husband.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Every element of this premise is qualified in the body itself: the evening is "allegedly" dinner and dancing, and Kirkwood denied any affair until her death. An introduction and a social evening are not an affair, and the argument supplies nothing between the two. [Rejecting P2] Further meetings establish an acquaintance. The premise treats frequency as evidence of the nature of the relationship without saying what those meetings involved or how the count was established. [Rejecting P3] This is an argument from silence, stated in its strongest possible form — because he never denied it, "this makes it obvious that he lied." Silence is equally consistent with the allegation being false and with a settled practice of not commenting on press reports, and no inference to falsehood is available from it. The closing move, that the number of accusations means "there is obviously some truth", treats volume of rumour as proof, which would convict anyone widely gossiped about.