Let me set up a little hypothetical. Let's say you are in a car accident, and your wife wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and was thrown through the windshield, and is lying in the middle of the road in a bloody heap, with possible multiple fractures and internal injuries. So you see and few bystanders and yell: "Can anyone help me?" So one of the guys holds up his hand and says "I'm a doctor, I can help." So what are you going to say, that's an appeal to authority, a logical fallacy, so I am going ignore that, and go with the guy in the blue shirt on the left, who, when it is all said and done, turns out to be a plumber, who doesn't have even rudimentary first aid skills, and oh by the way your wife dies. I would love to hear you explain your decision to your in-laws at the funeral.
I think there are times in an argument when you can spend about a half an hour going though your education, training, and experience, you know, your seven PhDs in subjects relevant to the issue you are arguing about, and casually point out that your opponent flunked out of junior high and was released from an insane asylum the day before yesterday, prefatory to you setting out your argument in detail, without that being considered an appeal to authority and an ad hominem attack. I just have this thought rattling around my brain about there being some legitimate uses of appeal to authority in argumentation. Something about an appeal to authority being sort of like introducing testimony, and the appeal to authority objection being sort of like the objection to hearsay. But it has been about twenty years since have looked at the issue in any depth, so I may be mistaken. I frequently am. And before you respond, please outline your education, training, and experience in the area, so I can take that into consideration in assigning what weight to give your response. I promise I won't call it an appeal to authority.
Not only that, but Alan asked Armand's about his credentials, so he was just answering a question, not making an argument.
What credentials do you have to make those choices?