Appeal to Authority

I've heard it argued that appeals to authority are not necessarily fallacies. For example, Gene Callahan argues that, "...appeals to authority are perfectly valid when the authorities in question are, in fact, true authorities... ." I think this is confused, and in fact wrong.

Let me be clear, I'm NOT talking about relying on the opinion of an authority for advice. I'm also NOT talking about pointing to evidence that other people have collected. I'm talking about putting forth the opinion of an authority in place of reasoning and evidence, in the course of argument.

Commonly, appeals to authority are recognized, not by the mention of an authority, but by the absence of presentation of that authority's reasoning and evidence. Note that a statement of the kind, "Einstein claimed _____, therefore _____ is true" is a fallacy even if Einstein is an expert on the subject. If you are persuaded by an argument that has been presented by an authority and think others will be as well, simply present that argument (duly credited, of course).

There is another, much more insidious form of appeal to authority. It is the inappropriate appeal to one's own authority. In a previous post I criticized Richard Dawkins for his sponsorship of Militant Atheism. My criticism of Dawkins was, and remains, that he is leaning on his status as a highly regarded Biologist to support his unscientific opinions about whether there is a god. Not only is Dawkins not an expert on the question of whether there is a god, but the question itself cannot be framed in scientific terms! To wrap the unscientific proposition Atheism in the mantle of Science is to discredit one's own authority as a reliable practitioner of science.

Dawkins doesn't present an argument or evidence that proves there is no god. He can't, because the proposition that there IS a god is logically non-falsifiable. Instead, he expects his audience to rely on his authority, and accept a conclusion that he has reached intuitively.