Argument From Authority

Appeal to authority, or the argument from authority, isn’t inherently a logical fallacy, but it can quickly turn into one. It’s a form of argument that appeals to an authority on a subject as a proof that a certain statement is true or probably true. The authority could be a person, a study, a book, etc.

Examples:

John is an authority on aircraft.
John says the first aircraft pre-dated the Wright Brothers.
It is probably true that the first aircraft pre-dated the Wright Brothers.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an authority on childcare.
The AAP says children are safer in rear-facing car seats.
It is probably true that children are safer in rear-facing car seats.

Both of the above are examples of when it’s not a fallacy. If John is indeed an authority on aircraft — for example, if he is an aviation historian — then his word can probably be trusted over someone who is not an authority on aircraft.

The appeal to authority becomes a logical fallacy when the appeal is to someone or something that is not an authority in the field, when experts in the field disagree, or when the authority said something that can’t be taken seriously. For example: she was drunk or joking, or her statement was taken out of context.

If John, in the first example above, joked that one could define a bird as an aircraft and in that case aircraft had existed for millions of years, then it would be a logical fallacy to cite him as saying aircraft had existed for millions of years.

Or, if John is actually just your neighbor who reads books about airplanes instead of a recognized authority in the field, then you can’t cite him in a serious debate about aircraft. (Perhaps it would be acceptable in an argument among friends, if John knows more than either of you.)

Sources

• Argument from authority (Wikipedia)
• Logical Fallacies (Stanford University)

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