(August 11, 2013 at 3:24 am)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: I see this fallacy called Chronological Snobbery (a term coined by Robert M Price I believe) a lot. It involves dismissing an idea or argument because of it being too old or out of fashion. It can occur in any context but I see it most commonly occur among those in academic fields.
Its form is as follows
If an idea is old or out of fashion, it is false.
x is old or out of fashion.
Therefore, x is false.
Here's an example I heard in a conversation last year:
Me: "...Willam Malloch's article gave strong evidence and reason that the opening of Bach's overtures were originally intended to be taken at the same tempo as the following fugues."
Other person: "what year was the article published?"
Me: "1983."
Other person: "ohhhh, yeah musicology has moved on."
Apparently arguments have an expiration date.
You could make an inductive argument of course that in rigorous fields, outdated ideas are likely to be false ideas but that alone can't definitively refute any modern usage of out of fashion thinking in every case. There's still the possibility that the current generation has it wrong in some areas.
Your argument is sooooo last year.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
