Argument from authority

Argument from authority or appeal to authority is a form of argument or reasoning that argues if a person with authority in a field makes a statement about it, it is probably true. It could become a fallacy if it is misused.^[1]

In informal reasoning,^[2] the appeal to authority is an argument of the form:

A is an authority on a particular topic

A says something about that topic

A is probably correct

The argument is good in some conditions. For example, a person says, "I need to take my medication because my doctor told me to."^[3] Doctors are trained, know much about medication, and probably have experience giving medication before. The person is appealing to a real authority with supported data that makes the authority probably right.

The argument is bad when there is a false authority or unclear authority. For example, "I know X is true because it said so on the internet."^[3] The complete internet has no authority because any person on the internet can say anything they want. A part of the internet may have authority, but it is unclear because the argument was not specific.