Argumentum ad verecundiam

[CuriousFiend]

"This is the argumentum ad verecundiam."

"It consists in making an appeal to authority rather than reason, and in using such an authority as may suit the degree of knowledge possessed by your opponent."

"Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment, says Seneca; and it is therefore an easy matter if you have an authority on your side which your opponent respects."

"The more limited his capacity and knowledge, the greater is the number of authorities who weigh with him."

"But if his capacity and knowledge are of a high order, there are very few; indeed, hardly any at all."

"He may, perhaps, admit the authority of professional men versed in science or an art or a handicraft of which he knows little or nothing; but even so he will regard it with suspicion."

"Contrarily, ordinary folk have a deep respect for professional men of every kind."

"They are unaware that a man who makes a profession of a thing loves it not for the thing itself, but for the money he makes by it; or that it is rare for a man who teaches to know his subject thoroughly; for if he studies it as he ought, he has in most cases no time left in which to teach it..."

"There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted."

 

[CuriousFiend]

"Example effects their thought just as it affects their action."

"They are like sheep following the bell-weather just as he leads them."

"They will sooner die than think."

"It is very curious that the universality of an opinion should have so much weight with people, as their own experience might tell them that it's acceptance is an entirely thoughtless and merely imitative process."

"But it tells them nothing of the kind, because they possess no self-knowledge whatever..."

"When we come to look into the matter, so- called universal opinion is the opinion of two or three persons; and we should be persuaded of this if we could see the way in which it really arises."

"We should find that it is two or three persons who, in the first instance, accepted it, or advanced and maintained it; and of whom people were so good as to believe that they had thoroughly tested it."

"Then a few other persons, persuaded beforehand that the first were men of the requisite capacity, also accepted the opinion."

"These, again, were trusted by many others, whose laziness suggested to them that it was better to believe at once, than to go through the troublesome task of testing the matter for themselves."

 

[CuriousFiend]

"Thus the number of these lazy and credulous adherents grew from day to day; for the opinion had no sooner obtained a fair measure of support than its further supporters attributed this to the fact that the opinion could only have obtained it by the cogency of its arguments."

"The remainder were then compelled to grant what was universally granted, so as not to pass for unruly persons who resisted opinions which everyone accepted, or pert fellows who thought themselves cleverer than any one else."

"When opinion reaches this stage, adhesion becomes a duty; and henceforward the few who are capable of forming a judgment hold their peace."

"Those who venture to speak are such as are entirely incapable of forming any opinion or any judgment of their own being merely the echo of others' opinions; and, nevertheless, they defend them with all the greater zeal and intolerance."

"For what they hate in people who think differently is not so much the different opinions which they profess, as the presumption of wanting to form their own judgment; a presumption of which they themselves are never guilty, as they are very well aware."

"In short, there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?"

"Since this is what happens, where is the value of the opinion even of a hundred millions?"

"It is no more established than an historical fact reported by a hundred chroniclers who can be proved to have plagiarized it from one another; the opinion in the end being traceable to a single individual."

"-Arthur Schopenhauer, The Art of Controversy"

 

[Booksurfer1]

"Thus the number of these lazy and credulous adherents grew from day to day; for the opinion had no sooner obtained a fair measure of support than its further supporters attributed this to the fact that the opinion could only have obtained it by the cogency of its arguments."

"The remainder were then compelled to grant what was universally granted, so as not to pass for unruly persons who resisted opinions which everyone accepted, or pert fellows who thought themselves cleverer than any one else."

"When opinion reaches this stage, adhesion becomes a duty; and henceforward the few who are capable of forming a judgment hold their peace."

"Those who venture to speak are such as are entirely incapable of forming any opinion or any judgment of their own being merely the echo of others' opinions; and, nevertheless, they defend them with all the greater zeal and intolerance."

"For what they hate in people who think differently is not so much the different opinions which they profess, as the presumption of wanting to form their own judgment; a presumption of which they themselves are never guilty, as they are very well aware."

"In short, there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?"

"Since this is what happens, where is the value of the opinion even of a hundred millions?"

"It is no more established than an historical fact reported by a hundred chroniclers who can be proved to have plagiarized it from one another; the opinion in the end being traceable to a single individual."

"-Arthur Schopenhauer, The Art of Controversy"

Fucken love it!
This is the problem with studying history. You are only reading information someone has written that is their opinion and it may or may not be valid. It may or may not be propaganda disguised as 'history' and it matters not how many others write the same opinion or the same version of what happened. It would be a lifetime study to attempt to prove to one's self, for example, the truth of the cause of WW1 if one were to take modern acknowledged wisdom on it as suspect.


The wind blew warm yesterday
I hear you say and it may blow warm tomorrow
I'll just stand and remember my own records
of yesterday and live with the wind of today
as for tomorrow I will allow it to come
my opinion will be made upon the feel of air on my cheeks
As to that which came before me?
best I not linger too long upon a wind I will never feel
perhaps all I can truly see is that that yesterday was real
but that what happened upon it I will never truly know
lest I remember my lives gone and even then
I will know only my opinion of what went on.

 

[CuriousFiend]

Fucken love it!
This is the problem with studying history. You are only reading information someone has written that is their opinion and it may or may not be valid. It may or may not be propaganda disguised as 'history' and it matters not how many others write the same opinion or the same version of what happened. It would be a lifetime study to attempt to prove to one's self, for example, the truth of the cause of WW1 if one were to take modern acknowledged wisdom on it as suspect.


The wind blew warm yesterday
I hear you say and it may blow warm tomorrow
I'll just stand and remember my own records
of yesterday and live with the wind of today
as for tomorrow I will allow it to come
my opinion will be made upon the feel of air on my cheeks
As to that which came before me?
best I not linger too long upon a wind I will never feel
perhaps all I can truly see is that that yesterday was real
but that what happened upon it I will never truly know
lest I remember my lives gone and even then
I will know only my opinion of what went on.

Man, that is yet another piece of literal profundity aye—🤔or at least, my opinion of it-is as such.

So to, similarly has become my subjective opinion of—as founded upon that which i have thus far witnessed—the numerous poetic literature you've presented within this forum and NZI.

Perhaps we might consider creating a dedicated literary board/thread—or at the very least-an area dedicated to -(imo)- your masterfully creative poetic expressions.(¿?)