The Logical Fallacy
A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning common enough to warrant a fancy name. Knowing how to spot and identify fallacies is a priceless skill. It can save you time, money, and personal dignity.
What is an Appeal to Ignorance Fallacy?
(AKA. argumentum ad ignorantiam) This is when a person claims that something is TRUE because it has not been proven FALSE or that something is FALSE because it has not been proven TRUE.
An appeal to ignorance isn’t proof of anything except that you don’t know something.
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
~ Carl Sagan
Example 1:
“How solar panels work doesn’t make any sense to me so we shouldn’t be putting them everywhere.”
Example 2:
“Nobody has ever seen a living dinosaur so how do we know they really existed?”
Example 3:
“No one can prove I didn’t see a ghost so I know they exist.”
Example 4:
“There’s no way that vaccine could have been produced so quickly so I know it doesn’t work.”
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
1Opinion
Example 4 is actually not a fallacy. One could legitimately argue that no efficacious vaccine could have been produced so quickly and your argument would be valid (though not sound unless factually true).
The argument is basically saying "I didn't do the rudimentary research to find out if it's true, so it must be false."
Ok that’s a good point
Yes and sometimes the repercussions can be very dangerous! As evident by the behavior of the anti-vaccine MAGA crowd.