"Appeal to Accomplishment" is not always a fallacy?
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Original Question
Is this an "Appeal to Accomplishment" fallacy?
Building a Lego project, Person A has built another instance of the thing before, Person B is building the project for the first time.
They get to a tricky point in the construction, Person B wants to do things a certain way, but Person A says "Don't do that, it won't work! Do it this other way, and it will work. I know since I have seen this problem before and I had successfully accomplished getting past it."
Is Person A making the "Appeal to Accomplishment" fallacy?
Answers
2There is no fallacy here. Person A is talking from experience. They could be wrong (meaning it actually can work what person B wants to do), but there is no fallacy.
Dr Bo gave a good answer. I think the "Appeal to Accomplishment" looks more like this:
- Person A puts forward a thesis
- Person B dismisses the thesis because Person A has not accomplished as many feats as Person B, or some other Person C
and
- Person A puts forward a thesis
- Person A claims that them being accomplished makes the thesis true or Person B assumes the thesis is true because Person A is accomplished
The "feats" in this case aren't relevant. For example, Person A criticising the leader of their country, only for Person B to retort that they should keep quiet, as they have never served in political office before.
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