You are wrong because “insert unrelated quantity here.” Most
people would read this last sentence and think to them self’s that that is
silly no one would really fall for something so silly. How could you show something
to right or wrong with an unrelated statement? Well I have bad news for you it
is done all the time and people fall for it. Take for example how many people
have had to resign from their job because of a personal scandal, one that had
no bearing on their ability to do a good job. Yet they were run though with the
words such as you can’t do job because you were bad at being a parent, father,
wife, etc… This mud racking is one of the most common examples of the logical fallacy
“ad hominem” which is Latin for “to the man.” Or for all the non-Latin scholars
this refers to an attack on someone about a subject which has no relation to
the one at hand. If you are still having problems with this it is political campaign
session right now and this is a favorite of attack ads. Just wait for one to
come on the radio or TV and then pick its logic apart. I can almost guarantee
that this fallacy will come up. Just be careful, the people who write the ads
are quite good at it and it is not always so clear
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A way to avoid this is to talk about the issue at hand. That
may sound hard, but there are a few questions to ask yourself when making an
argument against someone or someone else’s ideas. First, ask yourself “What is
my opponent arguing about? What are their main points and facts?” Then ask if
what you want to say next is related to your opponent’s argument, or just your opponent.
If your argument has nothing to do with your opponent’s arguments, and is
designed to turn the audience against them, it is probably an ad hominem and
should not be used.
- Austin
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