This claim is most often found among those who have never been in a lab, and have no idea how science works.
What does he think one is DOING when one cites a “peer reviewed scientific journal”?
That is an appeal to authority.
If this were NOT how science “works” we wouldn’t have the REPRODUCIBILITY CRISIS in which we recently found out that, in sciences like psychology and sociology, from 50-85% of the published experiments COULD NOT BE REPLICATED.
Scientists believe MOST of what they believe in the basis of sources they regard as AUTHORITATIVE.
Do you believe in the existence of the Higgs Boson?
Have you done the math and the quantum theory that predicts it YOURSELF?
Have you used The Large Hadron Collider at CERN for YOURSELF? (Or spend billions of dollars to make your own?)
No?
Then you are relying on AUTHORITY.
That scientists rely on the AUTHORITY of other scientists for their scientific knowledge is trivially obvious.
And there is nothing wrong with an appeal to authority. When you get sick, do you go to a doctor?
If you refuse to see a doctor because that would be an appeal to authority fallacy, you’re a fool.
As I’ve endless noted, material fallacies like appeal to authority are only SOMETIMES fallacious. An appeal to authority is only a fallacy, an error, when it is done wrong, usually appealing to non-authoritative pseudo-authority.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.