Fallacy Ad Verecundiam: What It Consists and Main Examples

The fatacia ad verecundiam , or fallacy of authority, is to appeal to the respect or prestige of a person to support an argument. It is a logical fallacy of authority, that is why it is also known as the argumentum ad verecundiam (in Latin, argument of respect).

Some authors consider it a variant of the ad hominem fallacy or argument addressed to the person and not to the subject it deals with. The fallacy ad verecundiam implies a disqualification against the person who sustains the argument: an attempt is made to diminish or reject an argument considering the lack of training or prestige of the arbiter against his opponent.

However, not all appeals to authority are fallacious arguments ad verecundiam. Most of the reasoning we do or the knowledge we obtain are transmitted by authorities. The argument becomes fallacious when the authority is wrongly cited with the intention to manipulate.

An argument is refuted only because a person of prestige does not agree with it, without reviewing the argument properly. Examples of fallacy ad verecundiam are seen daily in daily life in dialogues between friends or academic discussions. Sometimes they are the product of very internalized stereotypes in society.

The phrase"that is true because it was said on television"is an example of this. It is firmly believed that just because a serious communication medium issues a news, the fact that it tells is true.

What is the falla adrecrecundiam?

The fallacy ad verecundiam belongs to the category of informal or non-formal fallacies of the subgroup of reverence fallacies. To this genre also belong the fallacies ad populum (appeal to popular opinion), ad hominem (against the person) and the fallacy bandwagon (fashionable arguments).

It is also known as the argumentum ad verecundiam or argument aimed at respect. In this the appeal to the authority is made in the wrong way, and sometimes deliberately, with the purpose of manipulating.

Appeal to prestige

The fallacy ad verecundiam implies refuting an affirmation or argument appealing to the prestige of a person, who has a different opinion on this or that topic. Almost always that person is cited in the wrong way, since his argument on the subject treated lacks true authority.

A statesman is a person who enjoys social prestige and authority, but his opinions are not infallible and always valid in all fields. The same goes for a doctor who is an authority in medicine but not in urban planning.

That is to say, in the argument ad verecundiam alludes to the authority of a person when in fact he does not have authority or property to speak on the subject treated.

To detect these types of arguments it is necessary to have some knowledge about the matter under discussion and about the supposed authority of the opponent. Otherwise you can only distrust, but there is no way to refute their arguments.

Some authors consider that the argument ad verecundiam is actually a variant of the fallacy or ad hominem argument. As with the latter, in the ad verecumdiam argument, the person is disqualified because of their low level of social prestige or training.

Structure

Quoting Boethius, St. Thomas Aquinas said that"the argument of authority is the weakest form of discussion."

The logical structure of this fallacy is the following:

- A affirms B.

- As A enjoys authority or credibility and his opponent does not, what B says is true.

In other words:"I am right because I say it and because X says it".

His reverent nature makes this argument a very powerful rhetorical technique, because it alludes to feelings and not to reason. For this reason, it is often used in political activism and religious discourse. Appeals to the reverence generated by authority or prestige.

In advertising it is very common to use it as an appeal to prestige rather than to authority itself.

In commercials, well-known film or television figures or highly competitive athletes are used to sell certain products, when in fact none of them is the authority to guarantee, for example, that a baby product is good, or that a certain type of electronic equipment is of quality.

It starts from an incorrect premise: if it says this or that artist must be true, because otherwise it would not compromise its prestige. Here we seek to create an association between the product sold with the person who advertises it.

Types of authority for fallacies ad verecundiam

According to the logicians, there are different types of authorities for different kinds of fallacies or arguments ad verecundiam:

- Experts in a subject or area of ​​knowledge (epistemic or cognitive authority).

- Powerful or prestigious people or institutions.

- Government, administrative or legal officials.

- Family heads, social, religious or ancestral, among others.

In all these cases, the essential element to consider is the suitability or relevance of the experience of the authority cited for the matter in question. To effectively recognize and avoid this fallacy, the lack of authority must be adequately established.

It may happen that the aforementioned authority is not qualified to issue an opinion on that particular matter. Another reason may be that there is no agreement among all the authorities in that field about the matter under discussion, or even that the aforementioned authority was not speaking seriously.

In this sense, relevant criteria must be developed for the various authorities in order to diversify their type and correspondence.

Not always the argument Ad verecundiam is used as a"prestige argument", based on the fact that respected people are not wrong. It must be clear that not all the cases in which the authority or prestige of the people are appealed are arguments ad vericundiam.

Examples of fallacy Ad verecundiam

Example 1

"UFOs do not exist because the astronomer Carl Sagan said it."

Repeating a conjecture, no matter how much a scientific authority says it without being supported by a scientific study, is an argument ad verecundiam.

Example 2

"John Kenneth Galbraith argues that to end the recession is necessary to adopt an austere monetary policy."

It is true that Galbraith is an expert economist and authority on the subject, but not all economists agree with this type of remedy to attack the recession.

Example 3

The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is perhaps the greatest expert in this field, and asserts that the theory of evolution is true. So it is true.

Nobody questions Dawkins' authority about evolution, but to prove it, it is necessary to show evidence that supports that theory.

Example 4

Do you know more than me about biology? More than me, that I'm a teacher and I'm 15 years old teaching?

Having a university degree gives a person the knowledge necessary to deal with a subject properly, but that does not mean that he is not wrong about a particular issue, even in his own specialty.

References

1. Introduction to Logic. Argumentum Ad Verecundiam. Retrieved on March 11, 2018 from philosofy.lander.edu
2. Ad Verecundiam. Viewed from iep.utm.edu
3. Ad Verecundiam. Consulted on wiki.c2.com
4. Ad Verecundiam. Consulted by philosophy.lander.edu
5. Ad-verecundiam. Consulted of yourdictionary.com
6. Appeal to Authority. Consulted by logicallyfallacious.com