Generally, a personal attack is committed when a person substitutes abusive remarks for evidence when examining another person's claims or comments. It is considered a personal attack when a person starts referencing a supposed flaw or weakness in an individual's personality, beliefs, lifestyle, convictions or principles, and use it as a debate tactic or as a means of avoiding discussion of the relevance or truthfulness of what the person said. It works on the reasoning that, by discrediting the source of an argument, e.g. the person making it, the argument itself can be weakened. This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the attack is directed at the person making the claim and not the claim itself. The truth value of a claim is independent of the person making the claim. After all, no matter how morally repugnant a person might be, he or she can still make true claims. For example:
Witness: "I saw X murder the shopkeeper."
Defense attorney: "Isn't it true that you are a convicted felon?" On the other hand, illuminating real character flaws and inconsistencies in the position of an opponent are a vital part of the public political process and of the adversarial judicial process. Use of a personal attack in a logical argument constitutes a logical fallacy called Ad hominem, a term that comes from a Latin phrase meaning "toward the man".
How is this different from an :argument ad hominem? I think this page could potentially be very good - I can see where the original author was going with it. Needs work, obviously. Some research, links to libel, slander and defamation would also be good. - User:MMGB :Ok - I will stay tuned. :-) ---- I too think that a greater distinction should be made between personal attack and ad hominem. I think personal attack that isn't advanced in lieu of addressing the subject at issue, and isn't used as a rationale to dismiss the persons argument, is acceptable. Sometimes it is even called for. Anyway I just stumbled upon this interesting site. So I will leave it at this until I learn some more about what is happening here. --Del ---- The "speeding ticket" example I see up is more of a "tu quoque" example than just an "ad hominem" example, I think. Better "ad hominem" examples might be: Maria is guilty of one crime, therefore she is also guilty of a second, similar crime, for which she is on trial. Marika is a prostitute, therefore she has no right to tell me how to raise my children. Mariko, you lush, how dare you suggest I shortchanged you?! Feel free to modify them. -- User:Juuitchan
#REDIRECT Wikipedia:No personal attacks
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Personal attack
Generally, a personal attack is committed when a person substitutes abusive remarks for evidence when examining another person's claims or comments. It is considered a personal attack when a person starts referencing a supposed flaw or weakness in an individual's personality, beliefs, lifestyle, convictions or principles, and use it as a debate tactic or as a means of avoiding discussion of the relevance or truthfulness of what the person said. It works on the reasoning that, by discrediting the source of an argument, e.g. the person making it, the argument itself can be weakened. This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because the attack is directed at the person making the claim and not the claim itself. The truth value of a claim is independent of the person making the claim. After all, no matter how morally repugnant a person might be, he or she can still make true claims. For example:
Witness: "I saw X murder the shopkeeper."
Defense attorney: "Isn't it true that you are a convicted felon?" On the other hand, illuminating real character flaws and inconsistencies in the position of an opponent are a vital part of the public political process and of the adversarial judicial process. Use of a personal attack in a logical argument constitutes a logical fallacy called Ad hominem, a term that comes from a Latin phrase meaning "toward the man".
Personal attack
How is this different from an :argument ad hominem? I think this page could potentially be very good - I can see where the original author was going with it. Needs work, obviously. Some research, links to libel, slander and defamation would also be good. - User:MMGB :Ok - I will stay tuned. :-) ---- I too think that a greater distinction should be made between personal attack and ad hominem. I think personal attack that isn't advanced in lieu of addressing the subject at issue, and isn't used as a rationale to dismiss the persons argument, is acceptable. Sometimes it is even called for. Anyway I just stumbled upon this interesting site. So I will leave it at this until I learn some more about what is happening here. --Del ---- The "speeding ticket" example I see up is more of a "tu quoque" example than just an "ad hominem" example, I think. Better "ad hominem" examples might be: Maria is guilty of one crime, therefore she is also guilty of a second, similar crime, for which she is on trial. Marika is a prostitute, therefore she has no right to tell me how to raise my children. Mariko, you lush, how dare you suggest I shortchanged you?! Feel free to modify them. -- User:Juuitchan
Personal attack
#REDIRECT Wikipedia:No personal attacks
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PA | PB | PC | PD | PE | PF | PG | PH | PI | PJ | PK | PL | PM | PN | PO | PR | PS | PT | PU | PW | PX | PY | PZ |Words begining with Personal_attack:
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