Identify any fallacies in the following passage either by naming them or, where they seem not to conform to any of the patterns described in the text, by giving a brief explanation of why the fallacious reasoning is irrelevant to the point at issue.This river has been changing its course every couple of years for the past few thousand years. Now they've decided that the banks need to be stabilized. Who do the Army Corps of Engineers think they are to come in here and decide they know something Mother Nature doesn't?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

This kind of fallacy is of the "if it's been going on like this for a long time, then this is the way it should continue" variety, which is close to our "argument from tradition," but "tradition" doesn't seem to apply comfortably when it's nature and not people that is responsible for the situation. In any case, sometimes the mere fact that something has happened in a certain way can provide reasons for leaving well enough alone, but the mere fact that this is the way it has happened is not itself such a reason.