False Authority
Single Authority · Appeal to Authority
Citing someone as an expert on a topic outside their actual area of expertise, or relying on a single opinion to lend unwarranted credibility to a claim.
EverydayConcepts.io
Origin
The Latin label ipse dixit — "he himself said so" — was named by Cicero in De Natura Deorum (c. 45 BCE) to mock how Pythagoreans ended debates by invoking their master's authority rather than evidence. John Locke formalised the broader fallacy as argumentum ad verecundiam (argument from misplaced deference) in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), and later informal-logic taxonomists refined the specific sub-category of "false" authority — where the cited expert speaks outside their domain.
Updated February 22, 2026