The Appeal to Definition Fallacy
Hi,
This week’s email is about a logical fallacy that unintentionally derails many discussions, but is often also used intentionally for rhetorical purposes.
The information here is from my article on the topic.
Here are the key practical points you should know:
The appeal to definition is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone’s argument is based, in a problematic manner, on the definition of a certain term as it appears in a dictionary or a similar source.
For example, if one person says "this restaurant is freezing" and someone replies with "'freezing' means 'being at or below the temperature where water turns to ice', and it's not that cold here", that person is using an appeal to definition.
Although dictionaries try to capture the meaning of language as people use it, they don't do this perfectly, and can miss things like important connotations.
These arguments often also involve cherry-picking, where people pick their preferred definition for a term out of several possible ones.
To respond to an appeal to definition, make sure that the use of the definition is fallacious, and then explain why the use of definition and/or the definition itself is flawed; you can also use relevant examples to illustrate the problem with this type of argument, and ask the person using it to justify their reasoning.
As always, I'm happy to hear your thoughts.
Have a great week,
Itamar