Argumentum Ad Novitatem

The Latin label argumentum ad novitatem formalizes a temptation as old as human culture: equating newness with superiority. C.S. Lewis gave the pattern a distinctive name — "chronological snobbery" — in his 1955 memoir Surprised by Joy, describing the uncritical assumption that the modern is always better than the ancient. The fallacy is the logical mirror of the appeal to tradition (argumentum ad antiquitatem), which treats age as authority. Both are instances of non sequitur: the timing of an idea has no bearing on its truth.