Answered>Order 17243

One of the most common and important argument form is the appeal to authority. For this discussion, you will discuss this argument form, as well as how to use it to improve your reasoning and your life.

In your initial post:

• Give three examples of appeals to authority (they can be from real source or experiences, or you can make them up). One should be very strong, one very weak, and one in the middle. Evaluate the quality of each.
• Provide an example of a time in which you or someone you know was fooled by trusting a source that turned out to be unreliable.
• Provide another paragraph or two in which you discuss appeals to authority in general, by addressing some of these types of questions: How do we know which sources are reliable and trustworthy? Do you find that there are some types of sources of which people are too trusting? How might we learn to display the proper amount of skepticism and trust in relation to sources? Are people too trusting of media sources, and is there a way to overcome these tendencies? How can we make sure those are the best sources and not be deceived by deceptive ones?

Appeal to Authority arguments

This discussion focuses on appeals to authority, which is why you weren’t allowed to use that form for Discussion 1 of this week. Rather than repeat myself to give you guidance, I’ll refer you to the handout I provided in this week’s first discussion. Review the readings and the section of the handout on Appeal to Authority arguments before doing research to find your examples and answer the prompts above. As you construct your example arguments based on the appeal to authority form, make sure you are specifically identifying the type of authority the person is in your second premise. Explain why it is an appeal to authority and why the authority mentioned provides strong, medium, or weak support for believing the conclusion. Also, don’t forget to provide proper APA in-text citations and references.

Appeal to Authority

Inferring that something is true because an alleged authority said so.

Minimum 300 words