Arguments From Age
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In an argument from age the worthiness of an idea is judged by how long it has been around. These arguments can come in four types:
Appeal to tradition, where something is claimed to be good because it is traditional or has been around for a long time:
"These chinese herbal medicines have been used for centuries. They must really work."
"Why are you voting for Ralph Nader? We've always been Republicans."
"That's the way we've always don it."
Appeal to newness or novelty, something is claimed to be good simply because it is new:
"Did you read about this new diet?"
"New and improved" (The product may actually be better, but simply being new does not automatically make it better.)
"Under new management"
Dismissing the old, an idea is claimed to be no good because it has been around:
"That's the way my grandparents would have done it."
"Senator Snort has been in office for 30 years. It is time for some new blood."
Dismissing the new, claiming that an idea is no good because it is new:
"That idea will never work. Why don't we do it the way we always have?"
Of course, the age of an idea is often misrepresented (sometimes through ignorance, sometimes deliberately). For example, many of the ideas of the New Age movement are hardly new. Here is an example where an idea is dismissed in part because it is claimed to be new, when it really is not.
From Silencing Science by Steven Milloy and Michael Gouch (page 48):
"Consensus science" is a new phenomenon. It's billed as a way to assess the "prevailing": scientific view, to learn what "most" scientists think, to define "generally accepted" science.
But determining the scientific consensus has been going on for centuries. For example, ancient scientists reached a consensus that the Earth was round over 2300 years ago. By changing the terminology Milloy and Gouch try to dismiss the idea as something new. (And I have never heard anyone else refer to "consensus science".)
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Written by Jim Norton
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