Accepting and Rejecting Claims

In chapter 5, I found that the author’s discussion on accepting and rejecting claims based on appeals to authority to be the most interesting to me, as I do believe that many people fall into the trap of accepting claims without considering whether or not the claim was made by a true expert. According to Section B of Chapter 5, “We can accept a claim made by a reputable authority whom we can trust as an expert on [a] claim and who has no motive to mislead.” However, we cannot just accept a claim based on the mere fact that they are an authority figure because that would be a bad appeal to authority.

An example of accepting the claim by an authority we can trust:

We can accept a doctor’s claim about the type of prescription his patient needs to recover from his/her cold because he is an expert in this field and his motives are to help the patient. Therefore, in this clinic setting, we have no reason to reject the claim, as we can trust his expert opinion and that his motives are not to mislead.

An example of rejecting a claim by an authority:

We can’t always accept a claim just because the person is an authority figure, as this would be a bad appeal to authority.

For example: A doctor could claim that blow drying and straightening your hair leads to split ends. Although the doctor’s motive may not necessarily be to mislead, we cannot accept this claim just because he/she says so. The doctor is an expert authority, but he is not an expert on hair-care.  Therefore, we cannot accept this claim because in doing so, would be a bad appeal to authority.

In addition to these examples, there are also advertisements today that are geared to mislead their audiences into accepting their claims. Ultimately, it is up to us to use our reason to either accept or reject the claims by first considering the background of who is stating the claim and their motives behind it.