Ipsedixitism

Look up ipse dixit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ipse dixit (also known as the Bare assertion fallacy) is a Latin phrase meaning he himself said it. The term labels a dogmatic statement asserted but not proved, to be accepted on faith in the speaker.^[1]

The legal and philosophical principle of "Ipse dixit" involves an unproven assertion, which is claimed to be authoritative because "he himself said it." It is asserted, but not proved, for example: "His testimony that she was a liar was nothing more than an ipse dixit."^[2]

In the Middle Ages, scholars often applied the term to justify arguments if they had been used by Aristotle.^[3]^{[Full citation needed]}

1 Origin
2 Example
3 Ipse-dixitism
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Origin [link]

Cicero, in De Natura Deorum (I, 5), refers to Pythagoras's students debating, saying "ipse dixit", that is, "he said it himself", speaking of Pythagoras, whose authority they considered strong "even without reason".^[4]

Example [link]

"Mr. Lincoln has not character enough for integrity and truth, merely on his own ipse dixit, to arraign President Buchanan, President Pierce, and nine Judges of the Supreme Court, not one of whom would be complimented by being put on an equality with him. There is an unpardonable presumption in a man putting himself up before thousands of people, and pretending that his ipse dixit, without proof, without fact, and without truth, is enough to bring down and destroy the purest and best of living men."

—Stephen A. Douglas, Rejoinder at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858

Ipse-dixitism [link]

Jeremy Bentham adapted the term ipse-dixit into the word ipse-dixitism, which he coined to apply to all non-utilitarian political arguments.^{[citation needed]} This altered term has been used in modern legal and administrative decisions, generally as a criticism of arguments based solely upon the authority of a given organization. For example, a 1997 dispute challenged the constitutionality of Indiana’s system of taxing real property. The Indiana Supreme Court held that the system violated the Indiana Constitution, because: "the only standard that is ascertainable is one of ipse-dixitism: 1) value is whatever the State Board’s regulations declare it to be, and 2) the State Board’s regulations can be modified and interpreted in any manner that the State Board wishes."^[5] Similarly, a dissenting opinion to a 1976 safety-commission report accuses two commissioners (Barnanko and Cleary) of relying on an unsupported assertion: "The same holds true for the Barnako-Cleary ipse-dixitism—repeated again in this case—concerning the status of an unreviewed Judge's decision. Not once have they ever cited any authority for that assertion."^[6]

References [link]

^ J.B. Sykes, ed. (1982). The concise Oxford dictionary of current English (7th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon. ISBN 0-19-861131-5.
^ Garner, Brian A., Ed., ed. (1999). Black's Law Dictionary (7th ed.). St. Paul, MN: West. p. 833.
^ Aristotle for Armchair Theologians
^ Cicero, De Natura Deorum
^ Indiana Tax Court Cause No. 49T10-9701-TA-00086, retrieved 2008-02-26)
^ https://www.oshrc.gov/decisions/html_1976/3841.html