← Back to context

Comment by elendilm

14 hours ago

Argument from authority. Elaborate or nobody cares.

really? conditional on them actually being neurosurgeon, I'd place a lot more stock on it than on a random headline based on their authority alone. So I, for one, care.

Argument from authority is a bad thing specifically when it's used to make incorrect claims on the basis of authority. But authority as a concept still has plenty of merit.

  • Authority is a heuristic for which claims are worthy of investigation, not determining their truth

    • Always be suspicious of people who don't atleast give us even a single valid sentence to construct the chain of thought that would lead to their negation or assertion.

      An authority claim by virtue of itself is not worth investigating. Science doesn't work that way. Math doesn't work that way.

  • > Argument from authority is a bad thing specifically when it's used to make incorrect claims on the basis of authority.

    Exactly. Thank you.

    > I'd place a lot more stock on it than on a random headline based on their authority alone. So I, for one, care.

    I would leave you to contemplate the meaning of what you yourself wrote.

    • Don't follow. But you omitted the 'conditional on' part so I'm not sure you did either?