One of my favorite fallacies: the ad hominem attack. "An ad hominem (Latin for 'to the man' or 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, means responding to arguments by attacking a person's character, rather than to the content of their arguments."
Types of ad hominem
"The worst thing about using ad hominem purposely is that an opponent insults you publicly. Whenever this happens to you, you must recover from the humiliation and then point out the false connection in the argument, which was used as a trap for the audience. Moreover, the dilemma with ad hominem is that once it has been used against you it smears your reputation. Once somebody makes such a judgmental argument about you, the audience instead of evaluating it on logical grounds take it to be true."
"He’s not a great athlete; he’s a fraud, a cheat and a liar. That’s why not everybody is 'happy for Lance.'"
"A lawyer attacking a defendant’s character rather than addressing or questioning based on the case, e.g., in a case of theft pointing out the defendant’s level of poverty."
"Using someone’s known background or beliefs to respond in a way such as 'Of course you would say that, because you believe _____.'"
"Stating that someone’s argument is incorrect because of her religious beliefs, such as, 'Perhaps if you weren’t part of the religious group that you are, you would see this quite differently.'"
"Attacking someone’s own sexual orientation in arguing about the right of LGBT individuals to marry such as 'The only reason you could possibly be in favor of this is because you are not being honest about your own sexuality.'"
"Demeaning a teacher’s decision on grading by insulting her intelligence, e.g., 'Well, it’s not like you graduated from the best school, so I can see why you wouldn’t know how to properly grade a writing assignment.'"
"Using racial slurs to demean a person of another race in an argument about a crime involving people of different racial backgrounds, such as, 'People like you don’t understand what it’s like to be of my race so you blatantly have no right to make an argument about this situation.'"
"Generalizing views of a political party as an insulting argument to an individual who is a member of a different party, e.g., 'Well, it’s pretty obvious that your political party doesn’t know how to be fiscally responsible, so I wouldn’t expect you to, either.'"
" Stating that one’s age precludes him from being able to make an intelligent or meaningful argument, such as, 'You are clearly just too young to understand.'"
"Use of marital status to invalidate an opinion of someone of a different status, e.g., 'How can you make a decision about someone having marital problems if you’ve never been married yourself?'"
"Using gender as a means to devalue an argument from an opposing gender, e.g., 'This is a female issue. As a man, how can you have an opinion about this?'”
"Stating that the ethnicity of the opposing individual keeps him from formulating a valuable opinion, e.g., 'You are from the United States, so you could never understand what it’s like to live in a country like that.'”
"Using someone’s educational level as a means to exploit and degrade the opposer’s argument, such as, 'You didn’t even finish high school - how could you possibly know about this?'”
"Relying on socioeconomic status as a means to undermine an opposing individual’s opinion, such as, 'You wouldn’t understand since you have never had to struggle.'"
Tip: When others verbally attack you, take it as a compliment to the quality of your argument. It is usually a sign of desperation on their part.
Types of ad hominem
- abusive
- attack the person instead of the argument ("Only a cold-hearted Scrooge would cut this program!")
- circumstantial
- attacking the circumstances of the person ("How can you be against relaxing immigration policies. Your grandparents came over from Italy!")
- tu quoque ("you, too")
- AKA "practice what you preach." ("Why should I follow this Java style guide? You write pretty sloppy code yourself!")
You'll notice this tactic used by politicians constantly. It diverts the attention from what the person can do and focuses on his or her personal characteristics. And that's why I can't listen to political debates.
"The worst thing about using ad hominem purposely is that an opponent insults you publicly. Whenever this happens to you, you must recover from the humiliation and then point out the false connection in the argument, which was used as a trap for the audience. Moreover, the dilemma with ad hominem is that once it has been used against you it smears your reputation. Once somebody makes such a judgmental argument about you, the audience instead of evaluating it on logical grounds take it to be true."
Just like most things, the best way to view this is with examples, and there are plenty of those.
"Mandy Rice-Davies's famous testimony during the Profumo Affair, 'He would [say that], wouldn't he?', is an example of a valid circumstantial argument. Her point was that a man in a prominent position, accused of an affair with a callgirl, would deny the claim whether it was true or false. His denial, in itself, provides little evidence against the claim of an affair. Note, however, that this argument is valid only insofar as it devalues the denial; it does not bolster the original claim. To construe invalid evidence of the denial as valid evidence of the original claim is fallacious (on several different bases, including that of argumentum ad hominem); however likely the man in question would be to deny an affair that did in fact happen, he is no less likely to deny an affair that never happened."
"Glassner suggests that Bennett is somehow unqualified to criticize rap music because of positions Bennett has taken on other issues. However wrong Bennett may have been on other issues, such as the funding of public television or illegitimacy, that does not mean that his criticisms of rap were mistaken."
"Consider the following circumstance as a clear case of an ad hominem argument: 'David Duke says that white people are victims of police brutality just as often as black people... but honestly, would you believe a claim made by a racist?'"
"My opponent for office just received an endorsement from the Puppy Haters Association. Is that the sort of person you would want to vote for?"
"After Sally presents an eloquent and compelling case for a more equitable taxation system, Sam asks the audience whether we should believe anything from a woman who isn't married, was once arrested, and smells a bit weird."
"Tony wants us to believe that the origin of life was an 'accident'. Tony is a godless SOB who has spent more time in jail than in church, so the only information we should consider from him is the best way to make license plates."
"Tony wants us to believe that the origin of life was an 'accident'. Tony is a godless SOB who has spent more time in jail than in church, so the only information we should consider from him is the best way to make license plates."
"He’s not a great athlete; he’s a fraud, a cheat and a liar. That’s why not everybody is 'happy for Lance.'"
"A lawyer attacking a defendant’s character rather than addressing or questioning based on the case, e.g., in a case of theft pointing out the defendant’s level of poverty."
"Using someone’s known background or beliefs to respond in a way such as 'Of course you would say that, because you believe _____.'"
"Stating that someone’s argument is incorrect because of her religious beliefs, such as, 'Perhaps if you weren’t part of the religious group that you are, you would see this quite differently.'"
"Attacking someone’s own sexual orientation in arguing about the right of LGBT individuals to marry such as 'The only reason you could possibly be in favor of this is because you are not being honest about your own sexuality.'"
"Demeaning a teacher’s decision on grading by insulting her intelligence, e.g., 'Well, it’s not like you graduated from the best school, so I can see why you wouldn’t know how to properly grade a writing assignment.'"
"Using racial slurs to demean a person of another race in an argument about a crime involving people of different racial backgrounds, such as, 'People like you don’t understand what it’s like to be of my race so you blatantly have no right to make an argument about this situation.'"
"Generalizing views of a political party as an insulting argument to an individual who is a member of a different party, e.g., 'Well, it’s pretty obvious that your political party doesn’t know how to be fiscally responsible, so I wouldn’t expect you to, either.'"
" Stating that one’s age precludes him from being able to make an intelligent or meaningful argument, such as, 'You are clearly just too young to understand.'"
"Use of marital status to invalidate an opinion of someone of a different status, e.g., 'How can you make a decision about someone having marital problems if you’ve never been married yourself?'"
"Using gender as a means to devalue an argument from an opposing gender, e.g., 'This is a female issue. As a man, how can you have an opinion about this?'”
"Stating that the ethnicity of the opposing individual keeps him from formulating a valuable opinion, e.g., 'You are from the United States, so you could never understand what it’s like to live in a country like that.'”
"Using someone’s educational level as a means to exploit and degrade the opposer’s argument, such as, 'You didn’t even finish high school - how could you possibly know about this?'”
"Relying on socioeconomic status as a means to undermine an opposing individual’s opinion, such as, 'You wouldn’t understand since you have never had to struggle.'"
Tip: When others verbally attack you, take it as a compliment to the quality of your argument. It is usually a sign of desperation on their part.
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