F023 • Informal - Relevance/Appeals
Also known as: Argumentum ad Antiquitatem, Appeal to Common Practice, Argument from Antiquity
There is something reassuring about practices that have lasted a long time. If something has survived generations, it feels like it must have earned its place. The Appeal to Tradition is what happens when that feeling of earned durability quietly becomes the entire argument -- when 'we have always done it this way' starts to feel like a sufficient reason to keep doing it, without asking whether the reasons it started still apply.
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X has been done for a long time; therefore X is correct/best
Traditions encode something real. A practice that has persisted for generations has, in some sense, survived a long test -- and that is genuinely informative. Our ancestors were not fools, and accumulated wisdom deserves respect. The heuristic works: old and enduring often does mean 'tested by time.' But surviving is not the same as being optimal, or even correct. Many traditions persist not because they are the best approach, but because they are embedded in social structures, identity, or habit. Some persist because nobody questioned them. Some were based on circumstances that no longer exist. The Appeal to Tradition becomes a problem when the age of a practice does the work that evidence should do -- when 'it has been this way for a long time' quietly replaces 'here is why it works.'
| When tradition represents accumulated practical wisdom that still applies |
| In cultural or religious contexts where tradition itself has intrinsic value |
| When combined with evidence showing the traditional practice is actually effective |
| For maintaining social cohesion where the tradition serves current beneficial purposes |
| You might notice yourself feeling that something is correct or trustworthy primarily because it has been around for a long time, rather than because you have examined whether it still works. |
| Watch for the phrase 'we have always done it this way' functioning as a complete argument rather than as context for further discussion. |
| Pay attention to moments when the idea of changing a tradition triggers discomfort that is more about the change itself than about any specific problem the change would cause. |
| Notice when the age of a practice is being cited as its primary defense, with little attention paid to whether the conditions that made it sensible still exist. |
| Watch for the assumption that if a practice were flawed, someone would have noticed by now -- this underestimates how much can persist through inertia alone. |
| Thinking that all traditions are bad or should be abandoned -- some traditional practices carry genuine accumulated wisdom and continue to serve their original purposes well. |
| Not recognizing that traditions can encode practical knowledge worth understanding before discarding. The right response to tradition is usually 'let us understand why this exists' before deciding whether to keep it. |
| Assuming change is always better than tradition, which is simply the Appeal to Novelty -- the mirror image of this same error. |
| Appeal to Tradition |
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| Arguing that something is correct, superior, or should be maintained simply because it has been done that way for a long time or is traditional. |
| Age and longevity of a practice don't determine its correctness or value. Many long-standing traditions were based on ignorance, oppression, or outdated circumstances. If this reasoning were valid, progress would be impossible, and every harmful historical practice would be justified. |
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