3 ms·

> You may be surprised to learn that the current director of the NIMH shares my views and is acting on them: Appeal to authority does not make a valid argument

• lutusp 13y ago
  >> You may be surprised to learn that the current director of the NIMH shares my views and is acting on them > Appeal to authority does not make a valid argument. Then it's a good thing I didn't make an appeal to authority. My reason for mentioning the director's position and actions is because this issue has a political dimension as well as a technical one. By addressing the ongoing political changes, the director's comments add substance to the discussion, not to any imagined intellectual authority. If I say that psychology isn't a science, reference to the views of the director of the NIMH is hardly worthwhile. If I say that society is abandoning psychiatry and psychology, the same reference is immensely relevant. > ... repeatedly posting that the NIMH director agrees with you doesn't lend credence to your arguments. Only if I don't argue that psychiatry and psychology are being abandoned for cause, something I say regularly. And finally, in a thread that includes such non-arguments as "you should stop posting", the fact that others share my views is entirely germane.