Genetic fallacy

The genetic fallacy is a logical fallacy in which the origin of a belief, claim, or theory is confused with its justification. This fallacy is more often used to discredit a belief, though it may also be used to support one.

Examples:

• The Nazis were the first to practice eugenics. So it must be a bad idea. (See reductio ad Hitlerum.)
• You only believe in God because your parents taught you to. So your belief must be false. (Correct form would be: You believe in God because your parents taught you to; you believe in your parents; therefore your belief in God is indirect.)

This is a fallacy because the origin of the claim has no logical relation to its truth or falsity.

However, if you were sure that the origin of the idea (a person, usually) was always correct or was always wrong, you could safely move from the origin of the claim to an evaluation of its truth or falsity. See reliabilism and appeal to authority.

According to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy, the term originates in Morris Cohen and Ernest Nagel's book, Logic and Scientific Method.

Genetic fallacies include the ad hominem, argumentum ad verecundiam and the bandwagon fallacy. They are red herring fallacies. Also see the slippery slope fallacy.

External links

Examples:

• "Why are West Germans Anti-Communist?" - material for East German propagandists
• Manifesto of the Communist Party - classic by Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto contains many genetic arguments

Other references:

• Nizkor: Genetic fallacy
• Fallacies of relevance: Genetic fallacy from atheism web
• Forms of the genetic fallacy
• Fallacy files: Genetic fallacy