Argument From Setting A Precedent

Argument from precedent is a common argument in discussion, often used by committees or in meetings. It consists in saying that to act correctly in circumstances X would be inadvisable, in case others consider that this would set a precedent for acting in circumstances Y, where (it is argued) X and Y are superficially similar but (on close examination) are radically different. The Microcosmographia Academica, published in 1908, cited this as one of the reasons why "nothing should ever be done for the first time".

The fallacy is similar to the slippery slope argument.


Famous quotes containing the words argument, setting and/or precedent:

    The wonder of light is your familiar tale,
    Pert wench, down to the nineteenth century:
    Mr. Rimbaud the Frenchman’s apostasy
    Asserts the argument that you are stale,
    Flat and unprofitable, importunate but pale,
    Lithe Corpse!
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)