Special Pleading

This is the Logical Fallacy of asking to be held as an exemption to a rule that others are held by. It's typically used as an excuse for special treatment others don't receive, or to win arguments by claiming to have special insights others don't have.

"I'm a judge, so I shouldn't have to stop at red lights."

This is fallacious because even if someone has certain expertise or is part of a specific group, they still have to provide evidence and cogent reasons for their position.

A fairly well-known example is the common argument that the universe must logically have a creator. This goes:

Everything that has a beginning has a cause
The universe has a beginning
Therefore the universe has a cause.

The special pleading here is that it's insisted that an ultimate cause exists; to avoid the infinite regress, it's claimed that this cause is the sole exception and does not require a beginning, and therefore does not itself require a cause.

Examples of Special Pleading include:

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