The fall of the argument from authority and the rise of sound criticism

Abstract

This text tries to answer the question whether the irruption of sound criticism has lead to the disappearance –or at least the declination– of the argument from authority from the sphere of weighing evidence. This is not an irrelevant issue, since the objections to the previous system (legal proof) were related, mainly, with being untenable for operating in scenarios in which the force of an argument depended on the prestige of who, in a certain moment, had maintained it. After making some conceptual precisions to the argument from authority, evaluating if it is or not conceivable to disregard it from the construction of knowledge, and analysing the benefit that represents, sometimes, argumental inertia, the conclusion is that the rise of sound criticism has not mean the complete elimination of the argument from authority. This phenomenon does not imply by itself a problem of rationality, under the condition that what is maintained by the authority can be defeated by possible alternative versions better justified.