* Ben Finney:
Steven D'Aprano <st...@remove-this-cybersource.com.au> writes:
An ad hominem attack is not when somebody makes a criticism of you
personally. It is when somebody says something along the lines of
"Don't pay any attention to Alf, he doesn't know what he's talking
about, he's a <whatever>".
In other words, a criticism of the person is only a fallacy if it is
both irrelevant to the argument *and* used to dismiss the argument.
Or to weaken an argument, or to draw attention away from an argument, or to
weaken future arguments...
However, although in this particular case the Ad Hominems constituted logical
fallacies, not all Ad Hominems are logical fallacies.
For example, if a person is a chronic liar, has a known history of lying, then
that can have a strong bearing on whether the person's claims -- technical or
about other persons -- should be seriously considered[1].
Cheers & hth.,
- Alf
Notes:
[1] As explained at <url:
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html>
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
