Hi, Jake —

Thanks for the question.

You said:

• Since Catholics believe in Tradition as well as Scripture, would we be committing this fallacy every time we make an argument from it?
  

No, in fact the opposite is true: We would be committing a fallacy if we did not use it as one of two sources to argument Catholic Christianity from. (Side note: Make sure you are distinguishing between small "t" and big "T" Tradition; I am assuming your question is referring to big "T" Tradition.)

The canon of Scripture was not known until 382 A.D. at the Council of Rome.

• How do you think the faith was passed down to successive generations of Catholic Christians from 33 A.D. without a known canon of Scripture?

You said:
I was researching logical fallacies and came across the fallacious appeal to tradition.

• What sources did you use for your research?

Fallacious sources will yield fallacious results, which will yield fallacious opinions. Just look at any Protestant school of "higher education". What is called "higher education" is actually "distorted education" because they are starting with the false premises that:

• the Scriptures do not teach an Oral Tradition that has equal weight with Written Tradition, and
• anything that comes from Rome or the Church is incorrect, when historically, the Catholic Church is the only Church that can traces it's papal roots back to 33 A.D.

Besides the Scriptures, the Apostles and Early Church Fathers who lived from 100 A.D. to 850 A.D. would also strongly disagree with your so-called "fallacy". Check out my Scripture Passages web page:

http://www.askacatholic.com/ScripturePassages

Mike

The Holy Bible alone OR The Holy Bible Plus Oral Tradition?

1. Matthew 23:2-3 - chair of Moses; observe whatever they tell you (Moses chair was a prefigurement of the chair of St. Peter.)
2. Mark 13:31 - Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words won't
3. Mark 16:15 - go to the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature
4. Luke 10:16 - "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me."
5. John 12:25 - not everything Jesus said was recorded in Scripture
6. Acts 20:35 - sayings of Jesus were not recorded in the Gospels
7. Romans 10:17 - faith comes from what is heard
8. 1 Corinthians 11:2 - commends them for following Apostolic tradition
9. 1 Corinthians 15:1-2 - being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached
10. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 - hold fast to traditions, whether oral or by letter
11. 2 Timothy 1:13 - follow my sound words; guard the truth
12. 2 Timothy 2:2 - what you heard entrust to faithful men
13. 1 Peter 1:25 - God's eternal word equals the word preached to you
14. 2 Peter 1:20 - no prophecy is a matter of private interpretation
15. 2 Peter 3:15-16 - Paul's letters can be difficult to grasp and interpret
16. St. Athanasius (360AD) - let us note that the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian.
    (Four Letters to Serapion of Thmius 1, 28)
17. Origen (230AD) - "The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession, from the Apostles, and remains in the Churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as truth which is in no way in variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition." (Fundamental Doctrines 1, preface, 2.)