It also fails to assess ideas on their merits. The first criterion of a good argument is that the premises must have bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim in question. Since the origin of a thing has no necessary relevance to its merit, an argument that uses such a premise for accepting or rejecting a claim about the thing in question should be regarded as flawed.

In terms of categorization, the genetic fallacy is a fallacy of irrelevance. This article needs cleanup. ...

According to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy, the term originates in Morris Cohen and Ernest Nagel's book Logic and Scientific Method. There are a couple of known Morris Cohens: Morris Two-Gun Cohen (1887-1970) was a British-born adventurer who became a bodyguard for Sun Yat-sen. ... ...

Examples

• "You're not going to wear a wedding ring, are you? Don't you know that the wedding ring originally symbolized ankle chains worn by women to prevent them from running away from their husbands? I would not have thought you would be a party to such a sexist practice."

These alleged sexist origins do not make anyone who wears a wedding ring sexist.

• Isaac Newton was led to his theory of gravity by his interest in the occult, specifically the concept of "action at a distance," therefore anyone who believes in gravity is a follower of the occult.

The theory of gravity is nonetheless not an occult doctrine and it has since been scientifically tested. Sir Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society, (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727] was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians in history. ...

• "An uneducated homeless man told me that the Earth was the third planet from the sun. Since a smelly homeless man told me this, it is probably not true."

Whereas lack of credibility might make one skeptical, the falsity of an idea does not follow from a consideration of who said it.

• Karate originates from Chinese Kung Fu, therefore Kung Fu is better than Karate. (And the reverse is a fallacy, too.)

Karate or karate-dō is a martial art of Okinawan origin. ... Alternative meaning: Kung Fu (TV series) Kung fu or gongfu (功夫, Pinyin: gōngfu) is a well-known Chinese term used in the West to designate Chinese martial arts. ...

External links

• Nizkor: Genetic fallacy
• Fallacies of relevance: Genetic fallacy from atheism web
• Forms of the genetic fallacy
• Fallacy files: Genetic fallacy