rjfrankenberger's avatarThe Skeptical Ready Check

If you want to believe that the argument, “Well my dad said it was!” is still a good one… I would suggest reading no further.

The Argument From Authority: or “Jenny McCarthy said so… it MUST be true!”

This logical fallacy occurs when someone tries to claim that a fact or argument is correct because it was said by a person who is typically regarded as an authority figure of some sort. Formally the fallacy can be shown this way:

  • Person A makes claim C.
  • There is something positive about A that causes them to be regarded as an authority figure in some way.
  • Therefore claim C is true.

Anyone who has ever been a student of formal logic will see the problem right away. The reason that this is a fallacious argument is because the personal qualities of Person A have abso-stinkin-lutely nothing to do with the truth or…

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 17:20 and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to

  1. Authority | Alchemy of the Word says:
    January 28, 2013 at 10:22

    […] Logic School: Argument from Authority (ilookchina.net) […]

    Reply
  2. Unknown's avatar Essay: Authority « Alchemy of the Word says:
    April 27, 2012 at 09:06

    […] Logic School: Argument from Authority (ilookchina.net) […]

    Reply

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