Appeal to authority is perfectly reasonable when you’re appealing to a person who trusts the authority you’re appealing to. His reasons for that trust may be good or bad, but that appeal constitutes evidence to him.
If Kahneman says Taleeb changed his views, I take that as evidence in favor of Taleeb’s ideas being worth looking at.
I came to LW largely because of the converse—the references to Jaynes and Korzybski was evidence to me of good intellectual taste.
His reasons for that trust may be good or bad, but that appeal constitutes evidence to him.
Sure it is, but always in the context of evaluating the probability of someone to be a good source. If you later find out that Taleeb sucks, then you would lower the value of Kahneman as an authority (as I did).
“Appeal to authority”, used as a fallacy in the original comment, evades this by proposing almost-absolute value or truth, for which you should not doubt: “People like you have no idea what Taleb does, and how wildly successful he has managed to be at what all other feeble intellectuals fail at. He is the ‘level above’.” or “When Kahneman himself says Taleb changed his views, that’s the guy”.
Appeal to authority is perfectly reasonable when you’re appealing to a person who trusts the authority you’re appealing to. His reasons for that trust may be good or bad, but that appeal constitutes evidence to him.
If Kahneman says Taleeb changed his views, I take that as evidence in favor of Taleeb’s ideas being worth looking at.
I came to LW largely because of the converse—the references to Jaynes and Korzybski was evidence to me of good intellectual taste.
Sure it is, but always in the context of evaluating the probability of someone to be a good source. If you later find out that Taleeb sucks, then you would lower the value of Kahneman as an authority (as I did).
“Appeal to authority”, used as a fallacy in the original comment, evades this by proposing almost-absolute value or truth, for which you should not doubt: “People like you have no idea what Taleb does, and how wildly successful he has managed to be at what all other feeble intellectuals fail at. He is the ‘level above’.” or “When Kahneman himself says Taleb changed his views, that’s the guy”.