Catholic and Enjoying It!
tackles the problem of the ad hominem fallacy.
The problem is this: “Joe’s wrong because he’s ugly” is a worthless ad hominem, but “Joe’s wrong because he’s a stupid bigot” *might* be fallacious, but it might also have some merit since a pattern of stupid bigotry can, in fact, alter and even destroy Joe’s thinking and argumentation about the object of his bigotry. This is why a wise man does not credit David Duke on the subject of race relations or turn to Hitler for insights on the Jews.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In