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Appeal to tradition
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As a writer, you want to ensure that your readers will follow your arguments easily and find them convincing. To build sound arguments, you need to be aware of common errors (or fallacies) in logic and be careful to avoid them. There are many types of logical fallacies. In this article, we'll look at the appeal to tradition.
In this error, the writer claims that a belief or method is valid because people have believed it or used it in the past, often for a long period: "We've always done things that way, and it works fine, so why change?"
If that were a valid reasoning process, then we should never have replaced horses with cars, sailing ships with airplanes, or oil lamps with electric lighting!
Examples:
- My boss wants to introduce a new procedure. But the one we have been using has worked well for the last 20 years. Changing it would be a waste of time.
[Even if the old procedure works well, the new one might work better.]
- That country's system of government has been in place for over two centuries. It must be good to have lasted that long!
[The country's system of government may be good, but the mere fact that it has been around for centuries isn't automatic proof of its quality.]
Traditional ways of thinking or doing are not necessarily valid just because they are old—after all, the evil of slavery has existed as a traditional practice in one part of the world or another for thousands of years. And even when traditional ways are genuinely good, they can be capable of improvement!
