Ad Hominem

Ad Hominem August 20, 2013

Regular commenter Ian said the following, which made an important point clearly and succinctly, and so I wanted to share it. He wrote:

Being shown in detail that you’re wrong is often confused for a personal attack.

I have heard so many people, when presented with counter-evidence to their views, complained that the person criticizing their views was committing the ad hominem fallacy.

The irony, of course, is that if you attempt to correct their understanding of the term ad hominem, it will probably just feel to them like they are being personally attacked…


Browse Our Archives

Follow Us!