Difference between revisions of "Ipse dixit"

Latest revision as of 19:27, 9 May 2021

The Latin expression ipse dixit (‘He himself (has) said it’) is nowadays used as a noun-phrase to refer to and characterise any arbitrary and unsupported assertion which the person making it expects his or her listeners to accept simply because he or she has said it. . For example, in response to the question ‘What evidence did the Prime Minister offer for his claim?’ one might say ‘No evidence at all: it was just another of his ipse dixits’ or ‘It was a mere ipse dixit.’

Ipse dixit is the Latin translation of the Greek αὐτὸς ἔφα (autos epha), the formula by which Pythagoreans, followers of Pythagoras (c. 582-500 BCE), would sometimes seek to justify their acceptance of a proposition by appealing to the authority of Pythagoras himself: ‘[acceptance of this proposition is justified because] he himself [the Master, Pythagoras] has said it’. In his De natura deorum (On the Nature of the Gods) Cicero (106-43 BCE), the Roman orator, politician, and philosopher, uses the Latin translation ipse dixit when he describes and comments unfavourably on this Pythagorean practice: ‘the force of reason in disputation is to be sought after rather than authority, since the authority of the teacher is often a disadvantage to those who are willing to learn; as they refuse to use their own judgment, and rely implicitly on him whom they make choice of as a preceptor’ (De natura deorum, I 10). Of course Pythagoreans are not alone in appealing to the pronouncements of an authoritative figure to decide issues in philosophy; in the Middle Ages when Aristotelianism was the dominant philosophy, ‘Aristotle has said it’ fulfilled a similar function.

In more recent times, however, ipse dixit has had a different function. From having been a sentence which appealed to an authority in support of a claim, it has come to be used as a noun-phrase which refers to and criticises such an appeal. What is so criticised may be either an appeal to a ‘recognised’ authoritative figure, such as a Pythagorean’s appeal to the authority of Pythagoras, or simply the arbitrary assumption of authority by the speaker himself or herself, the focus of criticism with the contemporary use of ipse dixit.

You may like to compare St. Matthew's account of Jesus's reply to the High Priest's accusation that he claimed to be the Messiah "Thou hast said: " (AV, Matthew 20:64), an English translation of tu dixisti ('thou hast said') in the Vulgate, which is sometimes given erroneously as ipse dixisti ('thou thyself hast said it').