dspeyer comments on Open thread, October 2011 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: MarkusRamikin 02 October 2011 09:05AM

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Comment author: dspeyer 03 October 2011 01:38:51AM *  9 points [-]

Sounds like a special case or "judging an argument by its appearance" (maybe somebody can make that snappier). It's fairly similar to "it's in latin, therefore it must be profound", "it's 500 pages, therefore it must be carefully thought-out" and "it's in helvetica, therefore it's from a trustworthy source".

Note that this is entirely separate from judging by the arguer's appearance.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 06 September 2014 07:04:45PM 0 points [-]

It's fairly similar to "it's in latin, therefore it must be profound"

Or to sound more profound, quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur. With that in mind, the fallacy of dressing up in mathematical clothing might be dubbed the Quidquid Mathematice fallacy, or Quidquid Per Numeros ("whatever (is said) with numbers").