Jump to content

Argument from authority

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bilby (talk | contribs) at 02:32, 29 November 2022 (rv - see talk.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

An argument from authority (argumentum ab auctoritate), also called an appeal to authority, or argumentum ad verecundiam, is a form of argument in which the opinion of an authority on a topic is used as evidence to support an argument.[1] Some consider that it is used in a cogent form if all sides of a discussion agree on the reliability of the authority in the given context,[2][3] and others consider it to be a fallacy to cite the views of an authority on the discussed topic as a means of supporting an argument.[4][5]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Argument from authority.

Overview

Historically, opinion on the appeal to authority has been divided: it is listed as a non-fallacious argument as often as a fallacious argument in various sources,[6][7] as some hold that it can be a strong or at least valid defeasible[8] argument[9][10][11][12] and others that it is weak or an outright fallacy.[4][13][14][15][16]

The general form of this type of argument is:

Person or persons A claim that X is true.
Person or persons A are experts in the field concerning X.
Therefore, X should be believed.[17]

Use in science

Scientific knowledge is best established by evidence and experiment rather than argued through authority[18][19][20] as authority has no place in science.[19][21][22] Carl Sagan wrote of arguments from authority: "One of the great commandments of science is, 'Mistrust arguments from authority.' ... Too many such arguments have proved too painfully wrong. Authorities must prove their contentions like everybody else."[23] However, countering this it has been argued that science is fundamentally dependent on arguments from authority to progress because "they allow science to avoid forever revisiting the same ground".[24]

One example of the use of the appeal to authority in science dates to 1923,[25] when leading American zoologist Theophilus Painter declared, based on poor data and conflicting observations he had made,[26][27] that humans had 24 pairs of chromosomes. From the 1920s until 1956,[28] scientists propagated this "fact" based on Painter's authority,[29][30][27] despite subsequent counts totaling the correct number of 23.[26][31] Even textbooks[26] with photos showing 23 pairs incorrectly declared the number to be 24[31] based on the authority of the then-consensus of 24 pairs.[32]

This seemingly established number generated confirmation bias among researchers, and "most cytologists, expecting to detect Painter's number, virtually always did so".[32] Painter's "influence was so great that many scientists preferred to believe his count over the actual evidence",[31] and scientists who obtained the accurate number modified[33] or discarded[34] their data to agree with Painter's count.

Appeal to false authority

This fallacy is used when a person appeals to a false authority as evidence for a claim.[35][36] These fallacious arguments from authority are the result of citing a non-authority as an authority.[37] The philosophers Irving Copi and Carl Cohen characterized it as a fallacy "when the appeal is made to parties having no legitimate claim to authority in the matter at hand".[38] Copi stated: "In attempting to make up one's mind on a difficult and complicated question, one may seek to be guided by the judgment of an acknowledged expert who has studied the matter thoroughly. [. . .] This method of argument is in many cases perfectly legitimate. [ . . . ] But when an authority is appealed to for testimony in matters outside the province of that authority's special field, the appeal commits the fallacy of argumentum ad verecundiam ".[39]

In other words, one could say that the premise of the argument does not hold in such a case, rendering the reasoning fallacious.

An example of the fallacy of appealing to an authority in an unrelated field would be citing Albert Einstein as an authority for a determination on religion when his primary expertise was in physics.[37]

It is also a fallacious ad hominem argument to argue that a person presenting statements lacks authority and thus their arguments do not need to be considered.[40] As appeals to a perceived lack of authority, these types of argument are fallacious for much the same reasons as an appeal to authority.

Other related fallacious arguments assume that a person without status or authority is inherently reliable. For instance, the appeal to poverty is the fallacy of thinking that someone is more likely to be correct because they are poor.[41] When an argument holds that a conclusion is likely to be true precisely because the one who holds or is presenting it lacks authority, it is a fallacious appeal to the common man.[42]

Roots in cognitive bias

Arguments from authority that are based on the idea that a person should conform to the opinion of a perceived authority or authoritative group are rooted in psychological cognitive biases[43] such as the Asch effect.[44][45][46] In repeated and modified instances of the Asch conformity experiments, it was found that high-status individuals create a stronger likelihood of a subject agreeing with an obviously false conclusion, despite the subject normally being able to clearly see that the answer was incorrect.[47]

Further, humans have been shown to feel strong emotional pressure to conform to authorities and majority positions. A repeat of the experiments by another group of researchers found that "Participants reported considerable distress under the group pressure", with 59% conforming at least once and agreeing with the clearly incorrect answer, whereas the incorrect answer was much more rarely given when no such pressures were present.[48]

Another study shining light on the psychological basis of the fallacy as it relates to perceived authorities are the Milgram experiments, which demonstrated that people are more likely to go along with something when it is presented by an authority.[49] In a variation of a study where the researchers did not wear lab coats, thus reducing the perceived authority of the tasker, the obedience level dropped to 20% from the original rate, which had been higher than 50%. Obedience is encouraged by reminding the individual of what a perceived authority states and by showing them that their opinion goes against this authority.[49]

Scholars have noted that certain environments can produce an ideal situation for these processes to take hold, giving rise to groupthink.[50] In groupthink, individuals in a group feel inclined to minimize conflict and encourage conformity. Through an appeal to authority, a group member might present that opinion as a consensus and encourage the other group members to engage in groupthink by not disagreeing with this perceived consensus or authority.[51][52] One paper about the philosophy of mathematics states that, within academia,

If...a person accepts our discipline, and goes through two or three years of graduate study in mathematics, he absorbs our way of thinking, and is no longer the critical outsider he once was...If the student is unable to absorb our way of thinking, we flunk him out, of course. If he gets through our obstacle course and then decides that our arguments are unclear or incorrect, we dismiss him as a crank, crackpot, or misfit.[53]

Corporate environments are similarly vulnerable to appeals to perceived authorities and experts leading to groupthink,[54] as are governments and militaries.[55]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Fallacies". University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  2. ^ Lewiński, Marcin (2008). "Comments on 'Black box arguments'". Argumentation. 22 (3): 447–451. doi:10.1007/s10503-008-9095-x.
  3. ^ Eemeren, Frans (2010). Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse: Extending the Pragma-dialectical Theory of Argumentation. p. 203. ISBN 978-9027211194.
  4. ^ a b Sadler, Troy (2006). "Promoting Discourse and Argumentation in Science Teacher Education". Journal of Science Teacher Education. 17 (4): 330. Bibcode:2006JSTEd..17..323S. doi:10.1007/s10972-006-9025-4. S2CID 144949172.
  5. ^ Anderson, William (2000). "Austrian Economics and the "Market Test": A Comment on Laband and Tolliso". Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. 3 (3): 63–73. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.192.6282. doi:10.1007/s12113-000-1021-5. S2CID 14389918.
  6. ^ Cummings, Louise (2015). "Argument from Authority". Reasoning and Public Health: New Ways of Coping with Uncertainty. Springer. pp. 67–92. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-15013-0_4. ISBN 9783319150130. The argument from authority has had many detractors throughout the long history of logic. It is not difficult to see why this is the case. After all, the argument resorts to the use of opinion to support a claim rather than a range of more objective sources of support (e.g. evidence from experiments)...These difficulties and other weaknesses of authority arguments have found these arguments maligned in the logical treatises of several historical thinkers...'argument from authority has been mentioned in lists of valid argument-forms as often as in lists of Fallacies'
  7. ^ Underwood, R.H. (1994). "Logic and the Common law Trial". American Journal of Trial Advocacy: 166.
  8. ^ Walton, Douglas N. (2008). "Appeals to authority". Informal logic: a pragmatic approach (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 209–245. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511808630.009. ISBN 9780521713801. OCLC 783439050.
  9. ^ "Appeal to Authority". Association for Critical Thinking. Archived from the original on 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  10. ^ Salmon, Merrilee H. (2013). Introduction to logic and critical thinking (6th ed.). Boston: Wadsworth. pp. 118–121. ISBN 9781133049753. OCLC 805951311.
  11. ^ Bedau, Mark (2009). The ethics of protocells. Boston, Massachusetts; London, England: Mit Press. pp. 341. ISBN 978-0-262-01262-1.
  12. ^ Goodwin, Jean; McKerrow, Raymie (2011). "Accounting for the force of the appeal to authority". OSSA Conference Archive.
  13. ^ Carroll, Robert. "Appeal to Authority". The Skeptic's Dictionary.
  14. ^ Woodward, Ian. "Ignorance is Contagious" (PDF). University of Tasmania. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  15. ^ Knight, Sue; Collins, Carol (October 2005). "The Cultivation of Reason Giving". International Journal of the Humanities. 3 (2): 187.
  16. ^ "The Rival Theories of Cholera". Medical Press and Circular. 90: 28. 1885.
  17. ^ Curtis, Gary N. "Misleading Appeal to Authority". The Fallacy Files. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  18. ^ McBride, Michael. "Retrospective Scientific Evaluation". Yale University. Archived from the original on 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2017-08-10.
  19. ^ a b Zinser, Otto (1984). Basic Principles of Experimental Psychology. p. 37. ISBN 9780070728455.
  20. ^ Stephen, Leslie (1882). The Science of Ethics. G. P. Putnam's sons. p. viii.
  21. ^ Stevenson, I. (1990). Some of My Journeys in Medicine (PDF). The University of Southwestern Louisiana. p. 18.
  22. ^ Quick, James Campbell; Little, Laura M.; Cooper, Cary L.; Gibbs, Philip C.; Nelson, Debra (2010). "Organizational Behavior". International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology: 278.
  23. ^ Sagan, Carl (July 6, 2011). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Ballantine Books. ISBN 9780307801043.
  24. ^ Sismondo, Sergio (1999). "Unweaving the rainbow: science, delusion & the appetite for wonder", Queen's Quarterly, Kingston, Vol. 106, Iss. 1, (Spring 1999). p106.
  25. ^ Painter, Theophilus S. (April 1923), "Studies in mammalian spermatogenesis. II. The spermatogenesis of man", Journal of Experimental Zoology, 37 (3): 291–336, doi:10.1002/jez.1400370303
  26. ^ a b c Glass, Bentley (1990). Theophilus Shickel Painter (PDF). Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences. pp. 316–17.
  27. ^ a b Mertens, Thomas (October 1979). "The Role of Factual Knowledge in Biology Teaching". The American Biology Teacher. 41 (7): 395–419. doi:10.2307/4446671. JSTOR 4446671.
  28. ^ Tjio, Joe Hin; Levan, Albert (May 1956), "The Chromosome Number of Man", Hereditas, 42 (1–2): 723–4, doi:10.1111/j.1601-5223.1956.tb03010.x, PMID 345813
  29. ^ O'Connor, Clare (2008), Human Chromosome Number, Nature, retrieved April 24, 2014
  30. ^ Gartler, Stanley (2006). "The Chromosome Number in Humans: A Brief History". Nature Reviews Genetics. 7 (8): 655–60. doi:10.1038/nrg1917. PMID 16847465. S2CID 21365693.
  31. ^ a b c Orrell, David PhD. (2008). The Future of Everything: The Science of Prediction. pp. 184–85.
  32. ^ a b Kevles, Daniel J. (1985). "Human Chromosomes--Down's Disorder and the Binder's Mistakes" (PDF). Engineering and Science: 9.
  33. ^ T. C., Hsu (1979). "Out of the Dark Ages: Human and Mammalian Cytogenetics: An Historical Perspective" (PDF). Cell. 18 (4): 1375–1376. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(79)90249-6. S2CID 54330665.
  34. ^ Unger, Lawrence; Blystone, Robert (1996). "Paradigm Lost: The Human Chromosome Story" (PDF). Bioscene. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-05. Retrieved 2016-03-24.
  35. ^ "Argument from False Authority". Logically Fallcious.
  36. ^ "False Authority: When People Rely on the Wrong Experts". Effectiviology.
  37. ^ a b Carroll, Robert. "Appeal to Authority". The Skeptic's Dictionary.
  38. ^ Woods, John (2012). "A History of the Fallacies in Western Logic". In Gabbay, D.M.; Pelletier, F.J.; Woods, J. (eds.). Logic: A History of its Central Concepts. Handbook of the History of Logic. North-Holland. p. 561. ISBN 978-0-08-093170-8.
  39. ^ Irving M. Copi, Introduction to Logic, p. 98, Macmillan Publishing Co. (7th ed. 1986).
  40. ^ Williamson, Owen. "Master List of Logical Fallacies". The University of Texas at El Paso.
  41. ^ Ruggiero, Tim. "Logical Fallacies".
  42. ^ Bennett, B. "Appeal to the Common Man". Logically Fallacious.
  43. ^ Sammut, Gordon; Bauer, Martin W (2011). "Social Influence: Modes and Modalities". The Social Psychology of Communication (PDF). pp. 87–106. doi:10.1057/9780230297616_5. ISBN 978-0-230-24736-9.
  44. ^ Delameter, Andrew (2017). "Contrasting Scientific & Non-Scientific Approaches to Acquiring Knowledge". City University of New York.
  45. ^ Sheldon, Brian; Macdonald, Geraldine (2010). A Textbook of Social Work. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN 9781135282615.
  46. ^ Bates, Jordan. "12 Psychological Tactics Donald Trump Uses to Manipulate the Masses". 11. Appeals to Authority.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  47. ^ McLeod, Samuel (2008), Asch Experiment, Simply Psychology
  48. ^ Webley, Paul, A partial and non-evaluative history of the Asch effect, University of Exeter
  49. ^ a b Milgram, S (1965). "Some conditions of obedience and disobedience to authority". Human Relations. 18 (1): 57–76. doi:10.1177/001872676501800105. S2CID 37505499.
  50. ^ "December 2014 – Page 2". Disrupted Physician.
  51. ^ Definition of GROUPTHINK. (2017). Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/groupthink
  52. ^ Rossi, Stacey (2006). "Examination of Exclusion Rates in Massachusetts Public Schools" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  53. ^ David, Phillip J.; Hersh, Reuben (1998). New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics (PDF). Princeton University Press. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
  54. ^ Lookwin, B. (2015). "Biopharma Training".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  55. ^ Janis, Irving L. (1971). "Groupthink" (PDF). Psychology Today.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Argument_from_authority&oldid=1124510475"