Wendi M. Brooks
Reasoning and Critical Thinking
Professor Smillov
22 April, 2004
Ad Hominem
Ad Hominem literally
means, when translated from the Latin, “against the man” or “against the
person”. So basically it boils down to, someone disregards an argument based on
the person making the argument or presenting the argument. This is fallacious
because an argument shouldn’t be judged because of a bias someone might have
against a certain person that is making it. For example:
John: “I believe that abortion is
morally wrong.”
Jake:
“Of course you would say that, you’re a
priest.”
John: “What about the arguments I
gave to support
my position?”
Jake: “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.”
In this example we see
that Jake is disregarding everything John says based on the mere fact that he
happens to be a priest. If he weren’t a priest and gave the same back up
information saying abortion is morally wrong, Jake might have been more open to
the what John was saying.
This is a very common
fallacy. People need to understand that the character, circumstances, and
actions of a certain person do not hold any bearing to the truth and falsity of
the argument itself. If I, as a young Christian woman, were giving reasons why
I feel abortion is wrong, people could easily decide not to listen to me
because of my religious background, but really my reasons for believing the way
I do, aren’t because of my religion. But if someone didn’t know that, they
could easily be disregard my opinions, even though they are only based on the
fact that murder is wrong by law, as well as in my religion.
This fallacy needs to
be avoided. It can be avoided by making people understand that you can’t bias
your opinions because of your feelings for the person making the argument. If
someone has a good point, and I don’t particularly like the person making the
argument, I am not going to disregard what they are saying just because they
aren’t my friend.
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