Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby
Wednesday 2 December 2015
Appeal to authority versus appeal to stupidity
Just a short follow-up to yesterdays "appeal to authority" post, mainly for the sake of having a go-to link, and the equally important "appeal to stupidity" fallacy.
There at times appears to be a weird, anti-establishment, momentum behind the "appeal to stupidity" argument. "Of course she supports climate change, she's a climatologist", and then proceed to dismiss everything she says, like scientists are part of an elite group out to hoodwink the rest of us.
Mike Aben It's partially an appeal to stupidity ("it's just obviously wrong, any fool can see that without all those years of hard graft"), and partially a determined but wholly unsubstantiated belief that a false consensus is all-prevalent ("scientists hate to disagree with each other !"). Both are nonsense.You can't disprove mathematical formulae because you don't like the result even though it gives a measurably correct answer. The idea that scientists don't like discovery is quite bizarre, but some people would prefer to believe this instead of considering that their own half-baked ideas are simply wrong.
Rhys Taylor That's another thing I find curious. Why should people think that the universe should be obvious? Our intuition is built upon our experiences which occur only at a very specific scale on the surface of a single planet. Why should anyone expect our intuition to hold at the cosmic or subatomic scale.
The argument that scientists can't accept new ideas is quite ridiculous considering a century ago the consensus was that the universe was static and the subatomic world deterministic. You'd be hard pressed to find institutions capable of changing their minds so quickly.
I know, I'm preaching to the choir. I guess all we can do is keep fighting the good fight. Thanks for all your work in this area.
Mike Aben Exactly ! There is no reason at all to suppose that a kilo or so of blood-soaked goop sitting in a skull should be able to understand the entire freakin' Universe, let alone that it should be intuitive.
I am reminded of the Terry Pratchett quote : “You could say to the universe this is not fair. And the universe would say: Oh, isn’t it? Sorry.”
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There at times appears to be a weird, anti-establishment, momentum behind the "appeal to stupidity" argument. "Of course she supports climate change, she's a climatologist", and then proceed to dismiss everything she says, like scientists are part of an elite group out to hoodwink the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteMike Aben It's partially an appeal to stupidity ("it's just obviously wrong, any fool can see that without all those years of hard graft"), and partially a determined but wholly unsubstantiated belief that a false consensus is all-prevalent ("scientists hate to disagree with each other !"). Both are nonsense.You can't disprove mathematical formulae because you don't like the result even though it gives a measurably correct answer. The idea that scientists don't like discovery is quite bizarre, but some people would prefer to believe this instead of considering that their own half-baked ideas are simply wrong.
ReplyDeleteRhys Taylor That's another thing I find curious. Why should people think that the universe should be obvious? Our intuition is built upon our experiences which occur only at a very specific scale on the surface of a single planet. Why should anyone expect our intuition to hold at the cosmic or subatomic scale.
ReplyDeleteThe argument that scientists can't accept new ideas is quite ridiculous considering a century ago the consensus was that the universe was static and the subatomic world deterministic. You'd be hard pressed to find institutions capable of changing their minds so quickly.
I know, I'm preaching to the choir. I guess all we can do is keep fighting the good fight. Thanks for all your work in this area.
Mike Aben Exactly ! There is no reason at all to suppose that a kilo or so of blood-soaked goop sitting in a skull should be able to understand the entire freakin' Universe, let alone that it should be intuitive.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of the Terry Pratchett quote : “You could say to the universe this is not fair. And the universe would say: Oh, isn’t it? Sorry.”