RE: AF Hall of Fallacies
May 24, 2013 at 3:11 pm
(This post was last modified: May 25, 2013 at 11:20 am by Tiberius.)
The appeal to authority doesn't really work at any level when trying to establish absolute truth. I could just as easily lie about the ethics of hacking as Rayaan could do some good research and write an accurate essay on the subject.
Appeal to authority seems to me to be a fallacy when you are trying to make absolute truth claims, but if all you are trying to do is establish trust in a claim, then it's fine. Saying "Tiberius is a hacker so what he says about hacking is true" is a clear fallacy. Saying "Tiberius is a hacker so he likely knows more about hacking than Rayaan" isn't.
Appeal to authority seems to me to be a fallacy when you are trying to make absolute truth claims, but if all you are trying to do is establish trust in a claim, then it's fine. Saying "Tiberius is a hacker so what he says about hacking is true" is a clear fallacy. Saying "Tiberius is a hacker so he likely knows more about hacking than Rayaan" isn't.
