The Ad Verecundiam Family - Impersonal
Ad Verecundiam is a Latin phrase that actually means "(appeal) to modesty." However, it is generally referred to as "Appeal to Authority." The arguments in this family appeal to the modesty, i.e. the lack of knowledge or expertise of the speaker, and also by implication the listener. Since the speaker is too modest to claim to be an expert in the subject under discussion, he attempts to settle the question by citing the authority of someone who is (presumably) an expert.
The fallacies in this family share the characteristic that they try to support a position by claiming that it has the support of some authority. However, in the "impersonal" group, this authority is not an actual person to whom opinions and expertise might be attributed. It is, rather, an abstraction of some kind.
The fallacies in the impersonal Ad Verecundiam family are...
Appeal to Popularity (Ad Populum)
Appeal to Rugged Individualism
WELCOME EXPLANATION OF PRINCIPLES TABLE OF FALLACIES EXERCISES INDEX