Ipse dixit is a Latin phrase meaning he himself said it. The term labels a dogmatic statement asserted but not proved, to be accepted on faith in the speaker.[1]
The legal and philosophical principle of "Ipse dixit" involves an unproven assertion, which is claimed to be authoritative because "he himself said it." It is asserted, but not proved, for example: "His testimony that she was a liar was nothing more than an ipse dixit."[2]
In the Middle Ages, scholars often applied the term to justify arguments if they had been used by Aristotle.[3]
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Cicero, in De Natura Deorum (I, 5), refers to Pythagoras's students debating, saying "ipse dixit", that is, "he said it himself", speaking of Pythagoras, whose authority they considered strong "even without reason".[4]
Jeremy Bentham adapted the term ipse-dixit into the word ipse-dixitism, which he coined to apply to all non-utilitarian political arguments. This altered term has been used in modern legal and administrative decisions, general as a criticism of arguments based solely upon the authority of a given organization. For example, a 1997 dispute challenged the constitutionality of Indiana’s system of taxing real property. The Indiana Supreme Court held that the system violated the Indiana Constitution, because: "the only standard that is ascertainable is one of ipse-dixitism: 1) value is whatever the State Board’s regulations declare it to be, and 2) the State Board’s regulations can be modified and interpreted in any manner that the State Board wishes."[5] Similarly, a dissenting opinion to a 1976 safety-commission report accuses two commissioners (Barnanko and Cleary) of relying on an unsupported assertion: "The same holds true for the Barnako-Cleary ipse-dixitism—repeated again in this case—concerning the status of an unreviewed Judge's decision. Not once have they ever cited any authority for that assertion."[6]