15. Consider More Than the Source

Let us say that you are the personnel officer for a prestigious firm. As part of your job, you have developed a pretty good working knowledge of the prominent colleges and universities around the country and the kinds of graduates they typically turn out. In particular, you know that Vacuous U is a very sorry excuse for an academic institution. You are seeking to fill an important position in your firm and are taking applications. Having just glanced at the application submitted by a graduate of Vacuous U, one Peter Petri, you promptly decide, simply on the basis of the candidate’s being a graduate of that institution, to reject the application. You have just committed a fallacy.

It is not that your decision was completely unreasonable. After all, given what you know about Vacuous U, it is probable that Mr. Petri is not an especially strong candidate. But there is no necessity there. It is possible that a genuinely sparkling individual could emerge even from an un-illustrious academic institution such as Vacuous U. The essence of the fallacy you committed is this: Knowing a source to be generally bad, you assume that everything coming from that source must necessarily be bad. This doesn’t follow.

Certainly it is relevant to consider the source of something or someone whose qualities we are assessing. But we must go beyond that. First question: Where does Mr. Petri come from? Next and much more germane question: Taken in himself, what are Mr. Petri’s qualities?