Appeal to accomplishment

Appeal to accomplishment is a genetic fallacy wherein Person A challenges a thesis put forward by Person B because Person B has not accomplished similar feats or accomplished as many feats as Person C or Person A.

The reverse, appealing to the fact that no one has the proper experience in question and thus cannot prove something is impossible, is a version of an argument from silence.

Appeals to accomplishment are fallacies only when they are simple appeals to authority. It is not fallacious to rely on the testimony of a person who has attained a certain level of education or experience if they can produce further evidence to back up their positions when required.

Examples

• "How dare you criticize the prime minister? What do you know about running an entire country?"
• "I'll take your opinions on music seriously when you've released a record that went platinum."
• "Get back to me when you've built up a multi-billion dollar empire of your own. Until then, shut up."
• "If you think you know so much about making a video game, make one yourself!"

See also

• List of fallacies