SCAEFOD, Chapter 2: Authority and Anti-Authority Arguments.
By Martin Young.
Explanation and Critique.
A critical thinking class should not just teach you to understand the difference between good logic and bad logic. It should also teach you how to effectively communicate the results of your thinking to other people. Thus this class should at least make you able to explain both general points about logic, and the precise ways in which particular arguments go wrong. I use the word "critique" to refer to a short description of what exactly is wrong with some particular bad argument. A good critique will not just identify the logical flaw in the argument. It will also communicate the nature of that flaw in such a way that just about any ordinary, untrained person can understand the explanation, and see for him or herself what is wrong with the argument. You should not expect other people simply to take your word about which arguments are good and which arguments a bad. Instead, you should try to illuminate all the relevant facts and logical principles surrounding an argument so that your reader will easily be able to see for himself the logical flaws that you have already seen. Critique writing is a skill that I want you to learn and practice throughout this course, and at this chapter is ultimately aimed at training you to be able to write critiques of authority and anti-authority arguments. To this end, I want you to try to do your own critiques before you read mine, and check to make sure you’re including all the most relevant and important details, and explain exactly how these facts make the argument bad.
Logical Support
Logical support exists when a claim, or a set of claims, makes some other claim likely to be true. However, if the first claim or set of claims could easily be true even if that other claim was completely false, then that first claim will set of claims does not support the other claim. Consider the following two claims.
A. Dana does not speak German.
B. Dana did not participate in a certain conversation that was held entirely in German.
Notice that claim A supports claim B, while claim B does not support claim A. A supports B because the truth of claim A makes claim B very likely to be true. If someone does not speak German, then he won't be able to participate in a conversation that is held entirely in German. B does not support A because the fact that a person does not participate in a certain conversation does not necessarily mean that he could not understand the language used. Many other explanations are possible, so the fact that Dana did not participate in the conversation does not give us any reason to think that he does not speak German. We also say that one statement supports another whenever the first statement gives us some reason to think that the second statement is true, even if it is not very much of a reason. Generally, in this text, I will use the word support to mean that one statement gives us a good, or very good reason to think that another statement is true. We also use the word "imply" for logical support, especially when one claim gives another so much logical support that the truth of the first claim would mean that the second claim would absolutely have to be true. For instance, the claim that Dana does not speak German, implies that he does not participate in conversations held in German. If he was observed effectively conversing in German, that would imply that claim A is simply false.
There is a very important difference between support and association. Two kinds of ideas can get to be very closely associated in people's minds even if there is no logical connection between the two ideas. Sometimes, this is the result of deliberate propaganda by people in power, and other times it is the result of popular attention to specific issues. Consider the following two claims.
C. Michael is a Catholic priest.
D. Michael is a child molester.
At the end of the 20th century, there were a series of scandals involving the Catholic Church taking actions that exposed hundreds, perhaps thousands of children to priests who were known to be child molesters while at the same time protecting those priests from the consequences of their actions. At the height of the scandals, virtually all of the Catholic priests who came to national attention were involved in the scandal, either as molesters themselves, or as participants in the cover-up. The scandal became a staple of late-night television humor, and jokes about molester priests abounded. However, one fact about the issue received almost no attention. The priests who committed molestation actually formed only a minuscule fraction of the total. In fact, the proportion of Catholic priests who were a danger to children was the same as the proportion of men in general who were a danger to children. Even before the scandals began, the average priest was no more likely to commit molestation than the average male adult. What follows from this is the fact that, although statements C and D are strongly associated in some people's minds, they provide absolutely no support to each other. This is important to remember because most people make up their minds based on associations without stopping to think whether or not there is any logical connection involved.
In terms of arguments, a set of premises logically supports a conclusion if the falsity of that conclusion would imply that at least one of the premises was also false. To put it another way, imagine an argument and suppose that the conclusion of the argument is actually false. Now, if it is true that the only reasonable way to that conclusion can be false is if at least one of the premises is also false, then those premises logically support that conclusion. In other words, a set of premises supports a conclusion if supposing that those premises are true makes it unreasonable to suppose that the conclusion is false.
In arguments, the relationship of logical support is supposed to exist between the premises of the argument, and its conclusion. To put it simply, the premises are supposed to support the conclusion. In a good argument, the premises do support the conclusion. If they don't, the argument is bad. (Of course, a single false premise is also enough to make an argument bad.)
Authority Arguments.
In an authority argument, the fact that someone makes a statement is held to logically support the claim that that statement is true. Let's just look at a few authority arguments.
1. Dinosaurs were still around when humans first walked the earth. That's what my grandpa says, and he's really old
2. The Hitlerage Institute recently announced that critical thinking will destroy society as we know it.
3. How can you say cat juggling is okay? Everyone I know says that juggling is the worst thing you can do to a cat!
4. Dragons are real. You can trust me on this one.
5. A bum on the street told me that monkeys really can fly, so we should all wear hats.
6. The state department recently announced that Saddam Hussein was a transvestite.
Exercise 2.1. Try to figure out what all the above arguments have in common before you read my description of what makes something an authority argument. (My answer can be found at the end of this chapter.)
Now, none of the following arguments are authority arguments.
7. A horse is like a hippogriff. Hippogriffs can fly, so horses can fly.
8. Handgun Control, Inc. faked statistics on gun violence. That proves all gun-control activists are liars.
9. Statistics show that once people start using a sunscreen, they almost never go back to sunbathing without it, so
sunscreen use causes dependence on sunscreen!
10. If 100-mpg carburetors existed, someone would have put them into production. no-one has, so they don't exist.
11. Dogpatch community college should not require a freshman writing course. For god's sake, Harvard doesn't
require freshman writing!
12. A recent study shows that pelagic fish like Mozart better than Beethoven.
13. People of different religions are always fighting each other, so we shouldn't let those Presbetarians move in next
door. They're nice, but the fact that we're Quakers means we won't be able to avoid getting into fights with them!
14. There must be a magic cheese fairy. Where you think all that cheese comes from?
15. The dead man has defensive wounds to both his hands, so I don't believe your claim that he was lunging at you
with a red-hot radioactive chainsaw when you stabbed him.
Exercise 2.2. What do all of the above arguments have in common that makes them not authority arguments
If we evaluate an argument by looking closely at the source of a statement, it's an authority argument. If the best way to evaluate a particular argument does not include looking at the characteristics of a person or group, then it’s is not an authority argument.
Exercise 2.3. Examine these arguments and identify all the authority arguments. For each authority argument, write out why it is an authority argument. For each non-authority argument, write out how that argument is supposed to work
16. The USDA classifies horses as flying mammals, so horses can fly.
17. Saddam has been seen in a cocktail dress, a string bikini, and a Raggedy Ann costume, so he's a transvestite.
18. Flush Limburger says that all gun-control activists are liars.
19. 95% of Canadian monkeys can fly, so all monkeys can fly.
20. The Republican Party announced that providing sunscreen to children only causes dependence on sunscreen.
21. Scientists working for the oil industry claim to have proved that a 100 mile per gallon carburetor is impossible.
22. The San Diego zoo has a fire-breathing dragon, and the New York zoo has two of them, so dragons really exist.
23. Dogpatch College associated students Union insists Dogpatch College does not need a freshman writing class.
24. Namor, Prince of Atlantis, says that pelagic fish like Beethoven much less than they like Mozart.
25. Cat juggling has been shown to give cats whiplash, motion sickness and colliwobbles. So it is really bad for cats.
26. The Pope says that Presbyterians are dangerous because they're always starting fights with Quakers.
27. Training people to think for themselves is just like training people to be terrorists.
28. President Bush says there’s a magic cheese fairy, which is why he will never declare war on Wisconsin.
29. A fossil Tyrannosaurus was recently found to have a fossilized human being in its stomach. The human was
carrying a Betamax VCR and an eight track stereo, proving that he was eaten at the very dawn of human history.
30. The entire Mormon Tabernacle choir saw you stab that man, and they all say that he was not lunging at you with
a red-hot radioactive chainsaw at the time.
How Authority Arguments Work.
We use authority arguments because there are circumstances where it is safe to assume that someone else has already done all the critical thinking necessary to determine the right answer. When we accept an authority argument, we are assuming two things. First, we are assuming that the person cited as an "authority" is in fact capable of doing all of the research and critical thinking necessary to determine the right answer to this particular question. Second, we are assuming that the only considerations that influenced this "authority" were the totality of the available evidence, and honest, conscientious reasoning from that evidence. Authority arguments hold force because there are people who take the time and effort necessary to deeply understand particular subjects, and these people are usually willing to share the results of their efforts with the rest of us. There are many people who make their livings by providing the best possible information. Besides the fact that most experts have a strong sense of professional integrity, they also have a strong interest in being right, because they can lose income and prestige if they are shown to be wrong.
How Authority Arguments Go Wrong.
If we don't have a strong reason to think that the "authority" has based his statement purely on his own competent and thorough research and critical thinking, then we should not take his word for anything. It might happen that the "authority" simply does not have the right expertise for this issue. Or it might happen that we have reason to think that the "authority" is consciously or unconsciously motivated by something other than a sense of professional responsibility in this particular issue. Or it might happen that she has the right expertise, but some other equally competent authority disagrees with her statement, indicating that at least one person who is competent to judge thinks that she has not used appropriate critical thinking on this issue.
How To Think About Authority Arguments
An argument from authority can only have persuasive force when something being said by that particular person or institution gives us good reason to think that there is another argument - maybe a difficult or complicated one - but definitely a good argument, for that same thing. Thus "Fred says that..." or "The Fred Institute says... " can only be taken as an argument if it is taken to mean "Fred (or The Fred Institute) is known to do unbiased, competent research using good logic and methodology, and has researched this topic thoroughly, carefully and competently, and has critically analyzed and evaluated all relevant arguments, and based on this research and reasoning, and has honestly, and without conscious or unconscious bias concluded that... "
Critiquing authority arguments can get pretty complicated, so I’m going to start off by identifying three kinds of specific reasons we might have to think that some authority has not properly used her expertise, as well as another kind of reason that might lead us to think that we cannot rely on experts at all in some particular case.
1. If the authority in question has a demonstrably bad track record for this kind of claim, that kills the authority argument. If his track record is bad, he's no authority.
2. Professional qualifications or training can give someone authority if her track record is unknown. But if she has the wrong kind of expertise for this question, then she's no authority, because wrong expertise is as bad as no expertise. So if the authority in question demonstrably lacks the right qualifications, and has no proven good track record, then the argument is no good.
3. If the authority has the right expertise and/or a good track record, he might still be unconsciously (or consciously) influenced by some material interest. If we don't know of any material interest in the case, we should assume there is none, but if we do know that the authority has some definite, proven, material interest in people believing his conclusion, the argument is no good. He might honestly believe in his statements, but he might also be influenced by that known material interest, so he cannot be treated as an authority in this case.
The above considerations can undermine an authority even if she is the only person currently put forth as an expert in this particular field. In contrast, the following consideration basically knocks the whole idea of using authority out of the window.
4. If another, equally qualified expert disagrees with the authority used in the argument, then the original authority argument loses its persuasive force. If equally well qualified experts disagree, the rest of us cannot rely upon the authority of either one of them, and so neither of them can be treated as definitive, even if we cannot see any flaws in the expertise of either.
If a purported expert has a history of being off the mark, if she has the wrong expertise, or if she has a material interest in this particular question, we should have serious doubt that she’s appropriately using the right expertise for this question. But opposition by another properly qualified authority does not give us any specific reason to think that the first expert might not be properly using the right expertise. After all, it could be that the opposing expert is the one screwing up. However, one of these experts must be wrong, and it could be the first one, so we still can’t take her word for it.
Track Record
The best way to prove that a person or institution has expertise is by citing a long-term track record of accurate pronouncements. If a person has turned out to be right over and over again, then that person is an expert, period. If a person has a good track record on a particular kind of issue, and we don't have any particular reason to doubt her word on this particular issue, then her word is definitely good, whether or not she has any formal training. (There are situations in which we would doubt the word of someone with a good track record, but we will discuss those later.) Remember, authority arguments are based on the assumption that the "authority" is using some effective method of figuring out answers to this kind of question. The only way to really figure out whether or not a method really works is to try it a lot and see what happens, so a good track record is the best proof possible that the authority is using a method that works. Conversely, a bad track record is all the proof anyone needs that someone is using a bad method. A person can be festooned with degrees, certificates and awards, but if he has a poor track record for accuracy, he has no authority whatsoever.
As long as we don't have any special reason to question Louis Ville's judgment in this particular instance, the following is a very good authority argument.
Louis Ville says that Ding Bat's batting average in 1908 was 0.397215. Louis has been telling me stuff like this about baseball for thirty years, and he's always turned out to be exactly right.
But the following is a bad argument.
Well, it's true I've been wrong every time so far, but I've studied this subject more deeply than anyone else in history, and I hold several advanced degrees in the subject, so you can be sure I'm right this time.
Now, which of the following is the best critique of this bad argument?
1. The speaker can't be relied upon because he's not a proper expert. His qualifications don't count because they don't matter here.
2. The speaker should not be trusted because he has a history of being wrong. Even if he is as qualified as he claims, we should still discount the claims of someone who has a bad track record, and this speaker definitely has a bad track record.
Notice that critique two mentioned the crucial fact that the arguer has a bad track record, and gave the logical rule that says what we should do with "authorities" that have bad track records. Good critiques tend to include mention of crucial facts and logical rules.
One word of warning. A history of agreeing with your personal views does not count as a good track record. Consider Connie. Connie reads and listens to Flush Limburger, Dill O'Slimy and Schmuck Dimwitty. None of these guys knows his posterior from a hole in the ground, but Connie believes every word they say because they make Connie feel that she's smarter and better informed than other people. Connie particularly likes it when her favorite authors disparage people she disagrees with. Logic and evidence are actively avoided because, quite frankly, the slightest attention to logic and evidence will reveal Connie and her favorite authors as morons. Now, even though everyone here has a track record that is pathetic to say the least, Connie firmly believes that each of these authors has an outstanding track record because every time each one of them has said anything, Connie has agreed vehemently.
Similarly, a history of disagreeing with you doesn't make for a bad track record. Imagine that back in the Reagan Presidency, when Saddam Hussein was at his most murderous, the following conversation had taken place.
Laurel: West Asia Eyeball just issued a devastating report on President Reagan's friend Saddam Hussein. They say that Hussein has committed numerous human rights abuses including summary detention, torture, assassination and use of nerve gas agains civilians.
Camren: Yes, well, what would you expect from an organization like WAE?
Laurel: What is do you mean? WAE is the most respected eyeballing group in West asia!.
Camren: Oh please! Just look at their record and you'll see that they don't deserve all that respect at all.
Laurel: What's wrong with their record? When have they ever been wrong?
Camren: You're so naive! Don't you know that WAE has a long history of criticizing President Hussein?
Laurel: So what?.
Camren: And they've never printed anything nice about him.
Laurel: Again, so what?
Camren: So they're obviously biased! Why else would they print such horrible things about Saddam?
Laurel: Um, because he does horrible things to people?
Camren: Now you're showing your bias against Saddam. And WAE's bias means that we can ignore them too.
Now, which of the following is the best critique of Camren's argument?
1. Camren doesn’t manage to come up with a single instance of WAE being wrong about Hussein. Since he would presumably refute any WAE report he can prove to be false, we can assume he hasn't found any he can refute, which strongly suggests that there aren't any to find. This implies that WAE has a good track record. The fact that they've produced an unbroken series of bad reports on Saddam Hussein doesn't show any bias on their part. It simply could be the case that Saddam is a total scumbag.
2. We can ignore Camren because he's wrong about WAE, and because Saddam Hussein is a scumbag. WAE has produced a lot of reports showing that he's a scumbag, and because he is a scumbag, we know that WAE isn't biased.
Notice that number 1 gives crucial facts and logical rules, while number 2 does not mention either one of these things. Even worse, number 2 claims that WAE is accurate because Saddam Hussein really is a scumbag. This is very bad, because the scumbagginess of Saddam Hussein is precisely what Laurel is trying to prove. Since this is the point at issue, it is only an opinion, not a fact, and so no one can use it as evidence for some other claim.
Integrity
An important part of a person’s track record is his or her habitual way of dealing with mistakes. Compare two well-known talk-show hosts. The first host once falsely claimed that his previous show had one two Peabody awards, when in fact it had won a single Polk award, and that after he had left the show. The second host made public statements excusing the behavior of a writer who had, for profit, exaggerated the extent to which his “autobiographical” novel was based on fact. Anyone can misremember, anyone can make a mistake, especially in the heat of a live interview. The difference in integrity shows up in how a person responds to people who point out his errors. The first host got very angry with people who criticized him, saying that the difference didn’t matter, and implying that his critics were being deliberately unfair. The second host made a public retraction and apology. That’s integrity.
Similar considerations apply to groups. Science, as a whole, has a strong record of integrity because scientists tend to police their own and each other’s mistakes. The history of science is littered with claims that were once widely accepted but which are now generally rejected. Adherence and enforcement of appropriate professional standards is a vital part of expertise, and evidence that a group does not police itself is evidence that that group should not be treated as authoritative. I may be wrong about this, but it seems to me that neither astrologers nor cereologists have ever retracted any important claims. If an astrologer ever publicly claimed that astrology had been ineffective in some particular case, or that some particular astrological doctrine had been proved false, that would strongly suggest that she at least had some integrity. If a prominent cereologist publicly disagreed with the majority of his fellow cereologists, and asserted that some famous crop-circle really could have been made by humans, I would certainly acknowledge that he did not lack integrity. Conversely, whenever a group has a track record of never showing internal dissent, and never retracting claims, that group had better clearly demonstrate s strong track record for accuracy before we should take it seriously.
I think we should acknowledge integrity whenever it occurs, and particularly in people with whom we disagree. I remember an account - in a skeptical magazine - of a psychic who had written to newspapers denouncing psychic hotlines for not taking the trouble to make sure that all the operators they hired were real psychics. Unfortunately, the skeptic who wrote the article I read used this only as an opportunity to bash psychics, and thus failed to acknowledge the real integrity and moral courage shown by the letter-writer.
Expertise
If you don't have a known track record for a particular person or institution, you might be able to infer a track record based on the type of person or institution involved. There is a strong presumption that a recognized expert is very likely to be right so, in the absence of any track record, (or other complication) we are justified in taking the word of a recognized expert as an authority on his own subject. Advertising agencies and public relations firms have a horrible track record, so you should almost never take the unsupported word of an advertising agency or a public relations firm. The same is true of politicians. If you don't know a politician's track record for accuracy, don't take his word for anything. Upon legal advice, I'm not saying anything about lawyers. No sir, not one darn thing.
Expertise doesn't necessarily mean academic training. The school of hard knocks can confer valid degrees also. A claim of expertise could be backed up by university training, work experience, private research, or some other kind of experience that has led to real knowledge in that area. The key here is that we can generally assume that this person has learned from her training and experience, simply because the vast majority of people exposed to proper training and properly supervised experience do learn from it. However, mere exposure to a field doesn't confer expertise by itself. Prejudiced people, for instance, can and will misinterpret what they see to accommodate their prejudices. They can do this over and over again, each time becoming more and more certain that their prejudices are being confirmed by experience. A lifetime of this will produce a person who thinks he's an expert, but who actually knows less than nothing about his subject. This applies to distinguished professors just as well as to anyone else. The difference is that a professor or similarly educated person is supposed to have proved his expertise by demonstrating good reasoning and a good track record in his subject. Therefore, in the absence of countervailing reasons, we can take the word of an expert, such as a professor, or someone who has done private research, as a good reason to believe what he says. But beware, an expert is only an expert in his own field. Outside of his own field, a professor is just a layman. Professors of biochemistry are not necessarily authorities on biology, and vice versa.
As long as we don't have any reason to question their expertise, the following are all good authority arguments.
Professor Val Ence, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, says that "Aqua Regia" is a combination of two different acids.
Ally Eska, who spent 20 years studying forests in Alaska, says the "peat moss" found there is neither a peat nor a moss.
Every established Physicist in the world believes that some version of Quantum Mechanics will turn out to be correct.
The last argument is particularly strong, because the strongest possible authority argument is one based on a consensus of known experts. If, for instance, every biologist known to man believes that a certain biological theory is correct, and we have no independent reason to disagree or doubt their words, then that's an overwhelmingly good reason to believe in that theory, even if everyone else on the planet vehemently disagrees with it. But only the right expertise counts. The following are all crappy arguments.
Professor Val Ence, who is a doctor of chemistry, says that the "peat moss" found in Alaska is neither a peat nor a moss.
Critique. The conclusion of this argument concerns something found in Alaska. The right expertise for this kind of claim would be Alaskan botany or perhaps Alaskan biology. Certainly, the right kind of expert would be either a naturalist or someone who studies Alaska, but we have no evidence that Professor Val Ence has ever studied biology or Alaska. Since he's not the right kind of expert, we cannot take his word on this issue.
Ally Eska, who has spent 20 years studying the forests of Alaska, says Quantum Mechanics will turn out to be correct.
Critique. Ally Eska has not been shown to be an expert in physics, and only someone with expertise in theoretical physics will be a reliable source on the issue of quantum mechanics, we should discount what Ally Eska says about this matter.
Every established Physicist in the world believes that "Aqua Regia" is a combination of two different acids.
Critique. Aqua Regia is a matter of chemistry, not physics. We have no reason to think that any of the world's established physicists has any training or track record in chemistry, so we can safely ignore this consensus.
No matter how much you know about chemistry, knowledge of chemistry will never qualify you as an expert on Alaska. You can spend a lifetime studying the forests of Alaska, and none of it will help you understand quantum mechanics. Even if every established physicist in the world believe some particular thing, their agreement is meaningless if it is not a matter of physics.
Sometimes, determining whether or not an authority has the right expertise can be kind of tricky. What is the right expertise to determine whether or not astrology works, or whether or not all crop circles are made by human pranksters? Generally, biologists should be taken as authorities on biology, physicists as authorities on physics, and so on, but astrologers and cereologists cannot be taken as authorities on the effectiveness of astrology or the non-human origin of crop circles. The reason for this difference is simply that, for whatever reason, neither astrologers nor cereologists do double-blind controlled studies. Neither do they take any trouble to make sure that their claimed results are consistent with established scientific results. The use of double-blind studies, and a concern for consistency with science are important because they show a strong desire to root out cases where people have been fooled into believing a certain event has taken place, especially where such an event is scientifically implausible. The bottom line here is that the right expert is often the person who can look into a field from the outside and tell whether it’s possible that the claimed results are due to errors or trickery, or the person who can look at a claimed result and tell whether or not established scientific results give us good reason to think that it didn’t really happen. For this reason, a stage magician is the right expert to tell us whether or not a claimed psychic could be using trickery or an astrologer using cold reading to fool people, and an astronomer or a physicist is the right expert to tell us whether or not astrology or psychic powers are physically possible.
Finally, even the right expertise only counts when it is used. The following is a very bad argument.
I'm sure that the Indian King Ashoka was a Hindu. I mean, I'm only guessing. I've never looked it up, but you can take my word for it because I'm an established professor of Indian History.
Critique. This argument is bad because, no matter how well established the professor is, his expertise only counts if he uses it, and here he is clearly not using his expertise.
Expertise vs. Track Record
Basically, a known bad track record always trumps expertise. When we don't have any messy complications, a recognized expert with a good track record is about the best authority you can get. However, a recognized expert with a bad track record is absolutely useless.
We should trust Conn T. Nental when he says that the Himalayan mountain range is not getting any taller because, although he's usually been wrong when he tells us things like this, he does hold a doctorate in Geology, with an emphasis in Plate Tectonics and mountain formation, so we can take his word for it.
Critique. Normally, we would think that a person with these qualifications would be a reliable expert. However, we happen to know that Conn T. Nental has a very poor track record, and a poor track record always means that an authority is no good.
Advocacy and Authority
An “advocate” is a person who spend a significant portion of his time trying to get other people to believe some particular thing. Like-minded advocates often join together to create foundations, alliances and other groups. GreenPeace and Mothers Against Drunk Driving are prominent examples of such groups. Less famous groups might advocate for the rights of the mentally ill, for the existence of earth-visiting aliens, the non-human origin of crop-circles or the moral dangers of indoor plumbing. The mere existence of such a group cannot make it (or any of its members) into an authority, nor can an impressive letterhead, a stunningly designed website or millions of adoring fans. The only thing that can make such a group into an authority is a good track record for accuracy. If the group’s press releases have overwhelmingly turned out to be correct in all significant factual matters, then the group should be considered a reliable authority. If the group’s statements have frequently turned out to be importantly wrong on factual matters, then they are not an authority, no matter how many members and supporters they have.
Pseudo Authority
There are also a large number of people out there who was taken as experts but who have not done the kind of research that would qualify them as experts. These people are widely read, and widely taken as authorities, just because because they tell people things they want to hear. They write about esoteric subjects and so may be taken as an expert by many people even if he or she has never applied appropriate reasoning to his or her subject. Even worse, because of the public popularity of bold and exciting claims about these subjects, people who do not make such claims will not be popular with the public. In such subjects, those who make exciting claims can be presumed to have a strong interest in making those claims, and thus such an authority should be discounted unless it can be shown that independent observers have found him or her to have a strong track record for accuracy.
Interest
A person or institution has an interest when he has a strong reason to prefer one side of a question to the other. People can be consciously or unconsciously influenced by their material needs. So if the expert in question has a personal reason to prefer one side over the other, then we cannot take his unsupported word on that issue. On the other hand, everyone has general interests. Cops make their livings providing people who can be convicted of crimes, and so every cop has a general interest in lying about what he saw the suspect do, where he found the evidence and so on. But we can't say that any particular cop has a significant reason to lie about any particular suspect just because cops in general can gain advantages by lying about suspects. Most people who can gain advantages by lying still tend strongly towards telling the truth, so a generalized reason for lying gives us no reason to think that any particular person is lying at any particular time. You can only say that someone has reason for bias in this case when there is some feature of his present situation that would predispose him to prefer that this specific case came out one way rather than another.
Interest vs. Expertise and Track Record
Interest trumps both track record and expertise. Even a recognized expert with a good track record cannot be taken as an authority if his pronouncements also substantially serve his own interests. If we know that someone has a substantial interest in the position he is upholding, then we probably shouldn't take his word for it. (The only exception here might be if the speaker had a good track record that included a history of making true statements that were against his own interests. If a qualified speaker has proven that he would be willing to tell the truth if the truth hurt him, we should probably be willing to take his word when the truth helps him. Probably.)
Snot Rag tells us that a pocket handkerchief is absolutely essential to maintaining good respiratory health. Yeah, I know he's recently purchased shares in a handkerchief factory, but he's got a long history of making accurate statements about respiratory health issues, so he's bound to be right this time.
Critique. Because of his track record, Snot Rag would normally be considered an expert here, but we can’t take him as one since his financial stake in the handkerchief factory might have unconsciously influenced him to believe this claim about respiratory health.
As a prominent and well-respected physician with ten years of medical training and twenty years of experience as a medical doctor, I've always said that vitamin supplements were completely unnecessary for good health. Until now that is. Yes, I've recently discovered that vitamin supplements are completely vital to good health! Oh, and by the way, let me show you my new book on the need for vitamin supplements and invite you to try my new line of vitamin supplements, "Doctor Pan der Rer's Vitamin Supplements for Good Health and the Avoidance of Painful, Lingering Death."
Critique. Pan der Rer has a definite financial interest in this issue, and widespread acceptance of what he says about vitamins would lead to him making a lot of money. We don’t need to believe that he’s deliberately lying, but it’s still reasonably possible that the possibility of profit has influenced his judgment, so we can’t take his word on this issue.
You should however beware of people who claim someone is "biased" because they have a general interest in the truth of the kind of claim being advanced. There are many, many advocacy groups out there who support themselves by selling books explaining their reasons for boring us to tears with endless stories of boring atrocities and tedious crimes against humanity. Just because these groups tend to get more money whenever people believe their stories doesn't mean they have a significant interest in lying. Many of these groups have excellent track records, and on their track record is how they should be judged. In fact, some of the best track records out there are held by advocacy groups, so you can't discount the word of an advocacy group merely because it's an advocacy group. Well-respected advocacy groups have considerable authority, mainly because such groups only ever get the respect of independent observers by being right over and over again. The following is therefore a good argument.
Amnesia Intentional is admired the world over for it's work combating the scourge of absent-mindedness in high places. Recently, Amnesia Intentional issued a report condemning the government of Mnemonia, which completely forgot about over two thousand of it's citizens for whole holiday weekend.
And this is a bad argument.
You shouldn't trust Amnesia Intentional's report on Mnemonia because Amnesia Intentional is entirely supported by donations from people opposed to governmental absent-mindedness. After all, if people didn't believe that some governments are very forgetful, they'd never give money to Amnesia Intentional.
Critique. If Amnesia Intentional has a good track record, then you know it's usually been right even though it has always had this general interest in promoting reports of forgetfulness. Therefore that good track record is proof that Amnesia Intentional generally ignores it's self-interest in these reports, and only reports absent-mindedness in high places when it actually exists.
Remember, the rule is a good track record overrides a general interest while a particular interest overrides a good track record.
Conflicting Experts
Basically, equal experts cancel each other out. No matter how good one expert is, if his opinion is challenged by another, roughly equally qualified expert, then neither of them can be taken as settling the question. This only really applies to roughly equal experts. When we cannot find a clear reason to discount one of the authorities, we had to accept that we just cannot rely on anyone's authority.
Both arguments given in the following conversation are bad arguments.
Nestor. Now you have to admit that all politicians are liars. Professor Cy Nick says so!
Jennifer. Rubbish! Professor Nai Eve says that no politicians are liars, so you have to admit no politician ever told a lie.
Nestor. Well, Cy Nick has been studying politics for thirty years, so you have to believe him!
Jennifer. Nai Eve is a distinguished professor of political science at a major university, so she's gotta be right!
Nestor. Cy Nick has never been wrong about politics, so he's right this time!
Jennifer. Nai Eve is a world-renowned expert, so she's the one we should listen to!
Nestor. Cy Nick is internationally famous too, so you should listen to him!
Jennifer. Oh yeah? Well Nai Eve has been studying politics for just as long as Cy Nick, so she's the expert here!
Nestor. That's a laugh! Well Cy Nick also holds a distinguished professorship, so he's the expert, not Nai Eve!
Jennifer. You know that Nai Eve has never been wrong? Did you know that? Huh? Huh?
Critique. Both of these arguments are clearly bad, and for the same reason. Given the fact that both of the experts described here are fully qualified, have good track records and no known interest in the matter, we would normally take both of them as authorities. However, their expertise conflicts on this question, and the opposition of each means that the other’s word cannot be taken here.
Experts are not oracles. Nothing is ever true merely because some particular person or institution said it. What experts have that the rest of us don't is prolonged access to the best information and arguments available for their fields. They can use that access to build up a knowledge base that they can share with the rest of us. But we can only rely on that knowledge base when we are sure that it exists and that what the expert says is based only on it. If the "expert" is not an expert in the relevant field, if she is biased, if her arguments have been discredited, if other experts dispute her conclusion, or if there is credible contradictory evidence already in play, then the appeal to her authority is fallacious. This does not mean that we should ignore her. Given that she has some expertise, she may be able to offer arguments in support of her claims, and one or more of those arguments may turn out to be good, even though her mere word carries no weight.
Exercise 2.4. For each of the situations described below, determine whether we should take the word of that particular person.
31. One person has no formal education in the relevant subject, but has a long history of successfully answering difficult questions in that subject. She has no interest in this particular question, and other experts do not express disagreement with her on this question. Should we accept her as an authority on this question?
32. Another person has extensive training, and has earned several advanced degrees in this subject. However, many of her pronouncements in this subject have turned out to be wrong. Should we accept her as an authority on this question?
33. A third person has an excellent track record in this subject, but her track record only concerns questions in which she has no particular interest. The present question is one in which she does have a particular interest. In fact, she stands to make a considerable amount of money if people believe her answer to this question. Should we take her as an authority on this particular question?
34. A fourth person has several advanced degrees in this subject, and is widely recognized as an expert in this subject, but he has a particular interest in this question, and stands to make a considerable profit if we believe his answer. Should we take him as an authority on this particular question?
35. A fifth person has advanced degrees in a different subject. She has no known training or track record in this subject. Should we take her as an authority on this question?
36. A sixth person has a very good track record in a different subject. She has no known training or track record in this subject. Should we take her as an authority on this question?
37. A seventh person is a well-respected authority in this particular subject. We don't know her track record, but none of her opponents have come up with any instance where she was clearly wrong before. She has no particular interest in this subject, and none of the people who disagree with her have qualifications that are even remotely comparable to hers. Should we take her as an authority on this question?
38. An eighth person makes his living as an expert in this particular subject. A lot of people accept him as an authority in this subject, and take his word for things without checking elsewhere to see if he is right. We don't know his track record, but he has no particular interest in this question, and no qualified experts disagree with him. Should we take him as an authority on this question?
39. A ninth person makes her living pointing out wrongdoing by a certain group. Whenever she reports negative things about this group, her income increases. Her answer to the present question constitutes a negative claim about this particular group. She has no more interest in this question than she has in any other question about this group, and all of her previous negative claims about this group have turned out to be true. Should we take her as an authority on this question?
40. A tenth person makes his living making negative claims about a certain group. Whenever he reports negative things about this group, his income increases. His arm to the present question constitutes a negative claim about this particular group. He has no more interest in this question than he has in any other question about the group, but at the present time we do not know his track record on this type of claim, and neither he nor anyone else can demonstrate that any of his previous negative claims have turned out to be true. Should we take him to be an authority on this question?
41. An eleventh person has a very good track record in this subject. She has no particular interest in this question, but at least one authority with an equally good track record in this subject is known to disagree with her on this question. Should we take her as an authority on this question?
42. A twelth person has several advanced degrees in the subject, and is a widely respected authority on the subject, and has no particular interest in this question. However, at least one comparably qualified expert on this subject is known to disagree with him on this question? Should we take the first expert as an authority on this question?
Fallacies
Sometimes it is easy for a trained person to see that a particular argument is a load of crap. This is because there are certain bad arguments that are fairly often erroneously accepted as good arguments by untrained and/or dishonest people. These crappy but common "arguments" are technically called "fallacies." (Some people use the word "fallacy" to mean some particular belief that they disagree with. This is misleading, because one's disagreement with another's belief cannot by itself mean that the other is doing anything logically wrong by believing the disputed belief. And merely calling something a fallacy doesn't make it false.) So, a fallacy is a type of argument that is frequently taken to be a good argument, even though it is actually always a bad argument. There are a large number of fallacies, many of which are so common, or so interesting that they have special names all of their own. Here I will talk about all of the fallacies that might possibly be thought to be associated with authority arguments.
False Authority
Broadly, an argument commits false authority when.
1. The person, group or institution making the claim clearly has no substantial expertise in the topic under discussion. and/or
2. The person, group or institution making the claim clearly has a bad track record on these kinds of claims. and/or
3. The person, group or institution making the claim clearly has an interest in this issue.
Someone who isn't qualified in any way cannot be taken as an authority.
Protein based shampoos have to use vegetable protein to work properly. I'm a poorly trained retail clerk, so I should know!
Of course aliens are abducting soap opera stars and replacing them with robots make of toilet paper rolls glued together with expensive, french-milled soap. Lux Flakes says so on his immensely popular website, www.soaprobots.com.
I was the world’s top actor for fifteen minutes back in the eighties, and you can take my word for it that Bunkumology is the only true road to mental and upper-colonic health!
Actually, if something’s only visible advocates are celebrities, washed-up or otherwise, that’s a good sign that there’s nothing to it.
And it's worse if that celebrity is being paid to ... um, "endorse” a product.
You've got to believe that the "Premauture Poverty Retirement Product" is the best available retirement plan and won't eat up your savings leaving you homeless, living under an overpass, freezing cold and so very, very alone. We've hired some of the worlds best loved character actors to do our commercials! You trust kindly-looking old character actors, don't you?
The wrong expertise is just as bad as no expertise at all.
We know that the Pennsylvania legislature did not blackmail Washington into spending the winter at Valley Forge because Professor Boon Doggle, a distinguished professor of Biology says so.
Remember that a bad track record always kills authority stone dead.
The Freedomland government insists that Draconia possessed weapons of mass digestion and would have used them if Freedomland hadn't invaded Draconia. I know that the Freedomland government was completely wrong when it previously said that the Spammish government sunk the FLS Potato with a giant potato-masher grenade, and they were wrong when they said that the nation of North Tofu was completely unprovoked when it invaded South Tofu, and they were lying through their teeth when they said that the North Vermichellians fired underwater sausages at a Freedomland Dessertship. In fact, the Freedomland government has never been accurate in claims of this kind. But, they have always had exactly the right kind of expertise to verify these kinds of claim, so we can absolutely trust them this time.
Pronouncements by persons or institutions of a type that that's never been reliable cannot be relied upon.
Shill and Knownothing, the public relations firm, has announced that the Rummybuddies, (who recently invaded Quseven) are committing atrocities against the Qusevenis. It's true that public relations firms have a bad track record in general, but Shill and Knownothing is a brand new company, with new people, and therefore no track record, so you can trust them.
And, of course, a particular material interest ruins even the best authority in that particular question
Skiffer Skillets are the best! You can trust them because super-sou-chef Emerlililililifobobobobob-bo-bop said they're absolutely the best skillets in the world, just after he inherited the company that makes Skiffer Skillets.
Finally, an expert who fails to actually use his expertise is just as bad as someone who isn't an expert at all. Sometimes an expert claims that, although there is no formal scientific research or other independent evidence backing up his claim, we should accept it as authoritative because it is based on his "trained intuition." The idea here is that experts get so that they have a "feel" for their fields, so that their guesses and gut feelings have the same force as those pronouncements that are backed up by actual research. Unfortunately, real research has shown that experts' "trained intuition" is no more accurate than a lay person's "guess." In fact, trained intuition actually lowers the performance of experts because they sometimes choose to ignore their training in favor of a gut feeling. Despite what we see in the movies, the gut never performs as well as training.
Based on my trained intuition, I can confidently assert that this prisoner will break parole by committing more crimes, and should therefore not be released on parole.
The basic idea behind the false authority fallacy is that an arguer is offering someone as an authority when we have clear reason not to take that person as an authority. This is either because the person offered hasn't been proved to be a qualified expert, or it is because we have some particular reason to discount his opinion in this case.
Special Pleading
Special pleading is a fallacy that shows up a lots of areas of logic besides authority. It shows up in authority when an arguer wants us to prefer one authority over another equally qualified authority without giving us any legitimate reason to think that the second authority is any less qualified than the first one. You will recall that I previously pointed out that disagreement from an authority who has a similarly good track record, or similarly impressive professional qualifications, is always enough to prove that we should discount both experts until somebody comes up with a specific reason to discount only one of them. For this reason, anyone who cites an expert as an authority while ignoring equally well-qualified opposition commits the special pleading fallacy.
For instance, I once saw basically the following argument in a student paper.
John Rawls argues that justice at least partially depends on ensuring equitable distributions of property, but Robert Nozick tells us that justice only depends on making sure that nobody uses physical force or fraud when dealing with others, so we know that Rawls is wrong.
Nowhere in the paper did the student point out anything even remotely resembling a flaw in John Rawls's reasoning. His only argument against Rawls was that Nozick disagreed. But it was also true that Rawls disagreed with Nozick, so he could just have easily, and just as fallaciously, argued that it was Nozick that was wrong. He committed the fallacy of special pleading because he illegitimately assumed that the expert whose conclusion he liked was a legitimate authority and that the expert whose conclusion he did not like wasn't.
Red Herring
The red herring fallacy occurs when someone tries to distract us with something that isn’t really relevant to the issue at hand. I wouldn’t even mention red herring in this chapter, except that there's an interesting form of red herring associated with authority arguments. I say "associated" because it actually has nothing to do with authority, even though it tries very hard to pretend that it does. This is the use of phrases like "but who are you to say" as attempts at refuting arguers who have not given authority arguments.
Lee: We should believe that badger bowling is morallly wrong because a lot of badgers get bruised, and a lot of badger bowlers get bitten by badgers.
Alvin: But who are you to say what's morally wrong? Who gave you the authority to condemn badger bowling?
Notice that, even though Alvin is acting like Lee gave an argument based on her own authority, Lee actually gave an argument based on certain facts about badger bowling. Alvin's cry of "but who are you to say" completely misses the point of Lee's argument. (That’s what makes it a red herring.) The fact that Lee isn't established as an authority isn’t relevant to the issue of whether or not injuries to badgers and badger-bowlers justify banning badger bowling. Thus Alvin commits a huge, and rather whiney, red herring.
Circular Argument
An argument is circular when questioning its dubious premise sooner or later leads right back to the unsupported restatement of the conclusion. (This can happen when someone attempts to save a question-begging argument by coming up another question begging argument for that question-begging premise. Keep doing that over and over, and you'll eventually start to repeat yourself.) An argument can only work if its premises are supported by existing, well-established knowledge, or by premises that themselves are supported by existing, well-established knowledge. An argument that attempts to support itself in mid air will always fall.
I know Jeff is honest because Marie insists that he is. And we can trust Marie because Rudy swears that Marie is absolutely honest. As for Rudy, well, Jeff insists that Rudy is absolutely reliable! (So the claim that Jeff is honest ultimately rests on... the claim that Jeff is honest!)
We know that astrology works because it has been validated by our best psychics. How do we know that validation by these psychics can be trusted? Simply because each of them has an astrological chart that indicates absolutely stunning psychic ability. (So astrology tells us that astrology is reliable.)
Benjamin. You should believe Rush Limbaugh is a political expert because Ben Stein says he is.
Shaylee. But is Ben Stein a good judge of political expertise?
Benjamin. Of course he's a good judge of political expertise! Rush Limbaugh says he's a genius!
Circular arguments demonstrate the need for fact mining. Look for an independently supported claim to authority in the above arguments. You won't find one. Not of these people are shown to be authorities by anything outside their circles, so none of their claims can be taken as exidence for anyone's expertise.
Ad Populum
The fallacy of ad populum consists of thinking that something is true merely because a lot of people think that it is true. This counts as an authority argument because it relies on the credibility of a group of people who just happen to believe something. But such arguments are absolutely always bogus. The fact is that things that "everybody knows" often turn out to be totally false, so popularity can never make a belief true.
Jaren. Don't even try asking old MacLir to contribute to your charity. He's Scottish, and everyone knows that Scotsman are tight with money.
Perry. Hoots mon, dinna fash y'self o'er yon haverin'!
Jaren. Come again?
Perry. Sorry. I meant to say you're committing an ad populum.
Jaren. I'm coming a what?
Everybody knows that chiropractic works!
Everybody knows that we only use ten percent of our brains.
Everybody says that whatever Fred says is true.
The united opinion of a million uninformed people are no better than the opinion of a single uninformed person. When the only support a claim has is the fact that "everybody knows" it's true, then it's not supported at all.
Poisoning the Well
This is a crude but effective fallacy by which people are set up to disbelieve in a source that they might otherwise find credible. This is done by simply making disparaging .remarks about the source in question.
You can read the story in the OC Weekly, if you're willing to wade through all that liberal fog.
(Inspired by a column by Ann Coulter) In other appeasement news, there was another peace march in Washington today.
You're going to hear that slippery two-faced human slime heap Henry Kissinger defend his role in prolonging the Vietnam War? Well, make sure you keep an open mind.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. (I saw this on the back of an SUV in Orange County.)
The essence of this fallacy is that the speaker is trying to persuade us to assume that some person or group of persons is unreliable without giving any evidence that she is. Of course, if the speaker can come up with legitimate examples of where the source has previously failed to tell the truth, then it would follow that the source is unreliable. But just throwing out a few insults won't cut it.
Ad Hominem
The fallacy of ad hominem is generally an attempt to discredit some argument or refute some claim by pointing out something objectionable about the person or institution who makes the claim. The objectionable thing will be true, but it won't be the kind of thing that could undermine the person or institution's authority. There's two ways to commit ad hominem. First, by trying to prove a statement false by pointing out some objectionable feature of some person who says that the statement is true.
Rush Limbaugh says that people have a prima facie right to own firearms. You know how unreliable he is, so people don't have a prima facie right to own firearms
Laura Schlessinger says abstinence is the only absolutely guaranteed way of avoiding pregnancy and STDs. She has no expertise in this area, so we know abstinence is not the only absolutely guaranteed way of avoiding pregnancy and STDs.
Now it's true that neither Rush nor Laura has any authority in these fields, but all that means is that we can't use them as authorities. It doesn't mean that what they say is false. The second way to commit ad hominem is to try to undermine somebody's authority by pointing out some objectionable, but irrelevant fact about that person.
Don't trust her. She plays the bagpipes!
Remember that a track record of producing nothing but negative reports isn't a bad track record. A bad track record is only a history of producing unreliable reports. The following is a terrible argument.
We shouldn't trust William Shirer's report that Herr Hitler authorized the murder of mentally ill Germans. Shirer has written many reports about Hitler, and all of them have been negative. How can we trust such a biased source?
Ad Hominem is often deployed in an attempt to undermine authorities. In such a case, the arguer will bring up a negative fact about an authority that has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not he is using appropriate expertise in this instance.
We can ignore President Clinton's opinion on the budget. Didn't he lie about having sex with a woman not his wife?
Just like in false authority, the ad hominem fallacy offers us reasons that just aren't relevant to the issue.
Abusive Ad Hominem
Despite the similarity of names, Abusive Ad Hominem actually very different from regular ad hominem. Instead of citing a true but irrelevant fact, the arguer just makes something up - tells a whopping lie - about the authority he's attacking. Here are some examples,
Of course those scientists don't believe I have psychic powers. They're all driven by fear.
This is a fallacy because the speaker doesn't give us any reason to think that scientists are afraid of fear. He's just pulling this claim out of his ... out of thin air. And it should be clear that anyone who disagrees with the speaker about his possession of psychic powers will also disagree with him about the scientists who think he doesn't have psychic powers.
So what if Valerie Vaughn says that there's published scientific papers in support of Astrology. That just proves that she wants to make money out of Astrology.
How does the speaker know what Vaughn's motives are? He doesn't want to deal with the possibility that those papers really exist, so he tells a slimy lie about Vaughn to distract people from the real issue. Again, the people who cite Vaughn as an authority would deny that she's influenced by a desire for profit, so the speaker here has to prove it. He can't just say it.
How do we know that the left hates America? Just look at the fact that the left is against the war! They're against the war because, as usual, they cannot put aside their hatred of America.
This argument is about the clearest example of dishonesty and moral cowardice that I can think of. The speaker is absolutely refusing to acknowledge the possibility that a reasonable person could disagree with him, (let alone the possibility that the war is a bad thing), so he makes up an imaginary motive, with no support whatsoever, and sneeringly attributes it to his opponents.
The essence of this fallacy is that the speaker wants us to believe that the person they're attacking has an unworthy motive without offering us any REAL evidence that they possess such a motive. It's true that these idiots think that the fact that speaker is expressing a particular opinion is "evidence" that he or she has a material interest in people believing that opinion, but that's complete nonsense.
Abusive Ad hominem is different from the legitimate tactic of referring to real independent evidence that an arguer has a particular interest in that the speaker either makes unsupported accusations of hidden motives, or refers vaguely to some general interest.
Remember, if the arguer gives you actual evidence that the speaker has a material interest, it's not abusive ad hominem.
If the arguer's only "evidence" is just the speaker's opinion, it's abusive ad hominem.
Note that the only fact in such an argument is that the authority could have the interest or motive ascribed to him. But absolutely every authority ever cited could have a secret material interest or vicious motive for saying what he says. Abusive ad hominem wants us to disregard an authority merely because is could be true that he has a bad motive. If this works, we should disregard all authorities.
This fallacy is generally resorted to by people who cannot even begin to deal with the arguments offered by their opponents. Instead of thinking about the actual arguments, they make up phony "explanations" for the fact that their opponents are saying what they are saying, and then pretend that these are the real reasons why their opponents think what they think. Whether this fallacy is committed deliberately or unconsciously makes no difference. It is profoundly dishonest either way.
Phony Refutation
This fallacy occurs when someone claims to refute someone else's argument based on evidence that the other person isn't sincere. This is based on a reasonable rule of thumb, but it's a fallacy nevertheless. The fact is, we rely a lot on what other people tell us, so evidence that somone is insincere gives us good reason to distrust his testimony. Would you believe a Captain who told you "The ship's in no danger. Everything's fine!" as he frantically climbed into the only lifeboat? But the fact that he's abandoning ship only means that he thinks the ship is in trouble. We would only think that it really is in trouble to the extent that we think this particular Captain is an expert on this ship. If we knew he was crazy from Dengue Fever, for instance, his insincere assurances would not alarm us. Similarly, when someone's behavior belies her statements, all we can conclude is that she doesn't believe what she's saying. We can't conclude that her insincerity proves anything about her arguments. Consider this conversation.
Vicky. You know, animals have feelings and desires, feel pain and they deserve their lives for the same reasons that people do, so it really is immoral to cut up living creatures to make clothes.
Nell. Then why are you wearing a red leather wedding gown? Obviously, using animals for clothes is okay.
Who commits the fallacy here? Think about which of these two people gives relevant reasons for her opinion, and which cites a reason that has nothing to do with the real issue? (Many students get this one exactly backwards, even after several lectures on the subject!)
Now, if you take the time to do a little fact mining, and base your opinion on the facts, the issue becomes easier.
Facts:
1. Animals have feelings.
2. Animals have desires.
3. Animals feel pain.
4. Vicky is wearing a red leather wedding dress.
These facts cannot add up to a conclusion that cutting up animals for clothes is morally okay. Fact number 4 does not contradict facts 1 through 3, and Vicky's argument is based entirely on those facts. Vicky does not give an authority argument. We would tend to disbelieve an authority who does not herself believe what she's saying. The fallacy here is in taking that insincerity as refuting non-authority arguments. This is like our first example of red herring, in that the person committing the fallacy treats a non-authority argument as though it were an authority argument.
Fallacy Recap.
If you are really, really, really sure you understand all the fallacies described above, you can skip this section and the one after it, and goes straight to Exercise 2.5. This section gives a brief recap of the fallacy definitions.
False authority is where an arguer relies on someone who is either unqualified, or at least is clearly unreliable in this instance.
Special pleading, in authority arguments, is when an arguer takes one expert as authoratitive while ignoring the fact that other, equally qualified experts disagree with the expert he likes.
Red herring is where an arguer refers to facts that really are not relevant in this particular case, such as the fact that someone who is giving a non-authority argument is himself not an authority on this issue.
Circular argument is where an arguer gives two or more mutually supporting "arguments" without providing proper independent support for any of them.
Ad Populum is where an arguer thinks the common belief is the same as having a properly qualified, independent authority.
Poisoning The Well is where an arguer derides a particular authority without giving any particular reason to question that authority's track record, qualifications or independence.
Ad Hominem is where an arguer attacks an authority by mentioning a true, but irrelevant fact about that authority.
Abusive Ad Hominem is where an arguer "explains" something an authority says that by making an unsupported claim that the authority has a hidden motive to say that that thing.
In Phony Refutation an arguer attacks an argument by giving true reasons why the person giving the argument might be insincere.
Fallacy Exclusion Rules.
Here’s how to tell when a bad argument isn’t committing some particular fallacy.
False Authority If the argument does not cite someone as an authority, the fallacy cannot be false authority.
If there is no bad track record, absent qualification, or specific interest, the fallacy is not false authority.
Special Pleading If there is no equally qualified second authority, the fallacy cannot be special pleading.
Red Herring If there is no documentable fact cited, the fallacy is not red herring.
If the fact given is actually relevant, the fallacy is not red herring.
Circular Argument If the doubtful authority is not supported by another doubtful authority, the fallacy is not circular argument.
Ad Populum If any specific authority is mentioned, then the fallacy is not ad populum.
Poisoning the Well If the arguer is not trying to knock down some specific authority, the fallacy is not poisoning the well.
If any specific reason is given to doubt the authority, the fallacy is not poisoning the well.
Ad Hominem If the argument attacked is not an authority argument, the fallacy is not ad hominem.
If the reason given is not a true fact about the authority, the fallacy is not ad hominem.
If the fact given is actually relevant to the authority, the fallacy is not ad hominem.
Abusive ad Hominem If the argument attacked is not an authority argument, the fallacy is not abusive ad hominem.
If the negative claim about the authority is actually supported by facts, then the fallacy is not abusive ad hominem.
If the motive mentioned would not be relevant to the authority, the fallacy is not abusive ad hominem.
Phony Refutation If the attacked authority actually is cited in the attacked argument, then the fallacy is not phony refutation.
If it does not attack the credentials of the person giving the argument, then it is not phony refutation.
Exercise 2.5. Name that fallacy. Each of the following paragraphs is a description of an argument that commits some particular fallacy. For each paragraph, name the particular fallacy committed. If the fallacy committed is false authority, add one of the modifiers "bad track record," "no relevant expertise" or "particular interest" to your answer depending on precisely what is wrong with that particular type of argument.
43. The argument aims at refuting some other argument, and is only based on real evidence that the person making the other argument does not really believe the conclusion of that argument.
44. The argument is based on the authority of an expert with an almost unbroken history of being right about this kind of thing, but it is known that another expert, whose history of being right is just as impressive, disagrees with the first expert.
45. The argument is aimed at undermining the authority of an expert cited by someone else, and it does so by saying that the expert must be biased because he has some secret agenda in making this claim, without producing any independent evidence that the expert has this secret agenda.
46. The argument is based on the authority of an expert who has never before been wrong about this kind of claim, but this particular case is different in that, for the first time, it is well-documented that this particular expert has a private motive for us to believe his statements that he did not have in any previous case.
47. The argument is aimed at undermining the authority of an expert cited by someone else, and it tries to do so by pointing out a true fact that engages our attention, but which does not actually have anything to do with how the expert might be using his expertise.
48. The argument is based on the authority of a purported expert, but there is no evidence that this "expert" has relevant training, or a good track record, or anything else that would qualify him as an expert in this case.
49. The argument is aimed at undermining the authority of an expert, and does so by referring to the expert in contemptuous terms, or otherwise saying it is not a proper expert, or is untrustworthy, without giving any actual reason to think that the expert is not reliable.
50. The argument is based on the authority of someone who is only an expert in some completely different and unrelated field from the one that we are expected to take him as an expert in.
51. The argument is based only upon the fact that its conclusion is widely believed by members of the general public.
52. The argument is based on the authority of someone who has a long history of being wrong about this particular subject.
53. The argument is based on the authority of a person whose only claim to expertise is that he is considered an expert by some other person, and this other person's only claim to expertise is that he is considered an expert by the very person whose authority he is supposed to be certifying.
54. The argument is aimed at refuting another argument by pointing out that the person giving the argument is not an authority, but that other argument is not based on any claim to authority for that person.
Exercise 2.6. Name that fallacy, round two.
For the purposes of these exercises, let us say that Gear Head is an automotive technology expert with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, a Ph.D. in automobile technology, and while he was an undergraduate he received a felony conviction for stealing a Bob's Big Boy statue from outside a Bob's Big Boy restaurant and converting it into a high-performance automobile which he drove all the way across the United States at an average speed of 102 mph..
Let us also say that Chain Smoker is a high school dropout who smokes four packs of cigarettes a day.
Clear Cut insists that Tree Farm is a leading expert on forest ecology. Tree Farm says that Chain Saw is a world-recognized authority on forest ecology. Nobody else considers any of these guys experts on anything, and none of them has documented training or successful track record on forest ecology.
Horn Spammity is a well-known radio show host who is famous for making numerous definite pronouncements on matters of morality, politics and culture. Millions of people listen to his radio show and applauded his comments, but people who take the trouble to check up on what he says find out that he is almost invariably wrong about matters of morality, politics and culture.
Toss Pot has a completely unknown background.
Eye Ball is an expert on eye surgery with impeccable qualifications and an impressive track record. Until now, he has not stood to gain or lose by anything he is said publicly about eye surgery. However, he recently acquired a considerable number of shares in the company that holds the patent to the "Jackhammer and Lemon Juice" method of surgical vision correction.
And Drive Train is another automotive technology expert with qualifications that are just about exactly as impressive as Gear Head's. Drive Train has done studies on hydrogen fuel cell technology, and has concluded that it would take at least 20 years to convert even 20% of California's vehicles to run on hydrogen fuel cell technology.
Each of the following paragraphs is an argument that commits some particular fallacy. For each paragraph, name the particular fallacy committed. If the fallacy committed is false authority, add one of the modifiers "bad track record," "no relevant expertise" or "particular interest" to your answer depending on precisely what is wrong with that argument.
55. Chain Smoker points out that The New England Journal of Medicine has published numerous unchallenged studies proving that smoking cigarettes seriously raises the risk of emphysema, heart disease and cancer. But can you really take this seriously, given that Chain Smoker smokes four packs of cigarettes every single day?
56. Everyone should support the new "Slash and Burn" plan for forest management. Clear Cut says that this is the only environmentally sustainable forestry plan, and he should know because Chain Saw says that Clear Cut is the world's most reliable expert on forest ecology. And we know that Chain Saw is an expert because Tree Farm says he is preeminent in the field. And you know that Tree Farm is an expert because Clear Cut has said many times that Tree Farm is one of the top men in the field.