Style over substance fallacy

From RationalWiki

Jump to: navigation, search

The style over substance fallacy is a rhetorical technique, whereby the author embellishes their argument with compelling language and various terms of art, in order to silence dissent.

Neither of these — poetry or obfuscation, are legitimate logical analyses.

The writing might be wonderful, and the references seemingly deep, but what matters is the content of the argument — the substance. If the argument is good, others will make it pretty. If all that is good is the "style", please, write novels instead.

[edit] See also

Personal tools