Wednesday, November 09, 2005
AD HOMINEM
The Niskor Project provides this description:
Description of Ad Hominem
Translated from Latin to English, "Ad Hominem" means "against the man" or "against the person."
An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of "argument" has the following form:
Person A makes claim X.
Person B makes an attack on person A.
Therefore A's claim is false.
The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).
Example of Ad Hominem
Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong."
Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest."
Bill: "What about the arguments I gave to support my position?"
Dave: "Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope, so I can't believe what you say."
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This is my blog, and I understand this to be the accurate description of ad hominem.
If commentors wish to discuss the subject I bring up, I welcome the discussion. If commentors wish to discuss me, their comments are not welcome. I have the ability to block a commentor and to delete comments. It is a nuisance to do that, but if the ad hominem persists, I will resort to it.
I am out of patience with what is happening in the comments boxes. I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are. A statement that discusses me is ad hominem. (Example: Carrie has become a Protestant.) A statement that discusses another commenter is ad hominem. (Example: Anonymous, or John, or RBA is no longer Catholic.) Either deal with the ideas presented of refrain from comment.
