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I. Argumentum ad Verecundiam: (authority)
the fallacy of appealing to the testimony of an authority outside his special field.
Anyone can give opinions or advice; the fallacy only occurs when the reason for assenting
to the conclusion is based on following the improper authority. |
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A. Occasionally, this argument is called the
"argument from prestige" and is based on the belief that prestigious people
cannot be wrong. In these cases, the fallacy is best termed the "snob appeal"
variety of the ad populum. |
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B. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish
between the ad verecundiam and the ad populum (q.v., ad populum) when the authority cited is a group with
status. |
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Consider this example from an popular logic text:
"Those who say that astrology is not reliable are mistaken. The wisest men of history
have all been interested in astrology, and kings and queens of all ages have guided the
affairs of nations by it." |
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C. The informal structure generally has the
basic pattern: |
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Authority on subject x, L
says accept statement p.
p is outside the scope of
subject x.
p is true. |
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D. Many advertising campaigns are built on this
fallacy. Popular sports figures, musicians, or actors endorse products and, in proper
context, this fact is offered as a reason we should use those products. |
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E. Examples of the ad verecundiam fallacy: |
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1. The brilliant William Jenkins, the recent
Nobel Prize winner in physics, states uncategorically that the flu virus will be
controlled in essentially all of its forms by the year 2,050. The opinion of such a great
man cannot be disregarded. |
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2. The United States policy toward mainland China
was surely mistaken because Shirley McLaine, the well known actress, said, at the time,
she had grave misgivings about it. |
III. Uses of the ad verecundiam. |
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A. Proper experts and authorities render valuable
opinions in their fields and, ceteris paribus, should be believed when
we are unable to come to a conclusion on more secure grounds. |
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B. To qualify as an authority, the individual
must be generally recognized by peers in the same field when the peers hold a similar
view. (Examine, for yourself, why this condition is not an instance of the ad populum
fallacy.) |
IV. Non-fallacious examples of the ad
verecundiam. |
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A. Former President Bush said that America would
be much stronger if the people would return to traditional American values, and indeed he
argues that we should. |
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B. Although the following passages are considered
fallacies by a popular logic textbook, note why they are not fallacious. |
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1. "But can you doubt that air has weight
when you have the clear testimony of Aristotle affirming that all the elements have weight
including air, and excepting only fire?" (Galileo Galilei, Dialogues Concerning
Two New Sciences) |
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2. "In that melancholy book The Future of
an Illusion, Dr. Freud, himself one of the last great theorists of the European
capitalist class, has stated with simple clarity the impossibility of religious belief for
the educated man of today." (John Strachey, The Coming Struggle for Power)
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