Genetic fallacy

What it is

Judges a claim good or bad because of where it came from rather than on its present merits. A true idea can come from a bad source, and a false one from a respected source.

Related

• Ad hominem fallacy
  Both judge a claim by its source instead of its content; ad hominem targets the speaker's character, the genetic fallacy targets where the claim came from.
• Appeal to motive fallacy
  Both dismiss a claim by pointing to its origin; here the origin is the source's presumed motive or funding.
• Association bias bias
  The genetic fallacy is the argument-level version of association bias: the qualities of a claim's origin rub off on the claim.
• Etymological fallacy fallacy
  The etymological fallacy is a genetic fallacy about words: meaning is judged by origin.

References

• Wikipedia: Genetic fallacy en.wikipedia.org
• Your Logical Fallacy Is: Genetic yourlogicalfallacyis.com
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies iep.utm.edu
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies plato.stanford.edu
• Wikipedia: List of fallacies en.wikipedia.org
• Purdue OWL: Logical fallacies owl.purdue.edu

More in “Attacking the person or the source”