Re:Jeff Atwood's security blunder regarding email
by mixmastamyk on Monday April 30, 2012 @01:16PM
(#3910211)
Appeal to authority (or in this case the reverse) is a common logical fallacy.
Re:Jeff Atwood's security blunder regarding email
by slavak on Monday April 30, 2012 @01:46PM
(#3910365)
Appeal to authority can be a perfectly valid inductive method when used as a statistical syllogism. It is only a fallacy in the realm of formal logic, where the truth or falsehood of a statement is independent of its source.
This is a common but quite annoying misconception. The following is a perfectly valid deduction: 1. Authority A is correct on matters in subject X p percect of the time. 2. A claims Y regarding a matter in subject X. --> Therefore, Y is correct with probability p.
Each time I see some piece of writing from him, on a topic about which I am reasonably knowledgeable, I find some error. As a consequence, I tend to distrust anything from him on any topic about which I am not as familiar with.