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This is argument from authority. But, in a world where we don't go through people's statements and rigorously examine the provenience of each of them, argument
by afarrell 11y ago
This is argument from authority. But, in a world where we don't go through people's statements and rigorously examine the provenience of each of them, argument from authority is a valid heuristic.
- pron 11y agoPerhaps it is an argument from meta-authority, or a meta-argument from authority :) But I don't think it is. The argument is simply that there's little reason to accept a factual statement as correct if it is not supported by factual study. The reason I'm so sensitive about this issue in particular is that I've personally been involved both with the social sciences and STEM, and I'm extremely annoyed to see people in the latter group put so much emphasis on evidence, and at the same time display such a broad dismissal of the former group without so much as a rudimentary understanding of the field(s). You hardly see historians dismiss research in solid-state physics as you see computer scientists dismiss research in sociology (which goes above and beyond the well-accepted inaccuracy of the latter due to intractability).