Argumentum ad hominem is a Latin phrase that means “argument against the man.” The AD HOMINEM FALLACY is when the argument challenges the person rather than the truth of the topic.
It goes like this:
Captain Jack Sparrow says Elizabeth Swann is in trouble.
But Captain Jack Sparrow is a pirate, rogue, and a liar.
Therefore, Elizabeth Swann must be safe.
The topic is Elizabeth being in trouble. The person saying she is in trouble is Jack. It is certainly wise to distrust someone who has lied to you before. But, logical arguments are about finding the truth, and we cannot discover the truth by assuming someone is lying. Not even pirates lie all the time.
Another way to attack the individual, rather than the topic, is to say that the person is not an expert.
Butterfly Greentree says that global warming is destroying our environment.
She's just a crazy tree-hugging hippy, not a scientist.
Therefore, we don't have to worry about global warming.
Are we certain Ms. Greentree is crazy? Do we know she is a hippy? And if she is a hippy, does that have any bearing on the truth of her claims? Are hippies always wrong? Are crazy people always wrong? The old saying goes, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day."
When the idea of Global Warming was first discussed, many people did not believe it. But we now know that the Earth's average global temperature has increased over the past century, and is expect to continue rising over the next 100 years. That knowledge is based on scientific evidence, not whether or not someone hugs trees.
Another variation of Ad Hominem is AD HOMINEM TU QUOQUE (too KWOH-kwee) or the You Too Fallacy. It goes like this:
Thomas Jefferson wrote that “All men are created equal.”
But Jefferson owned slaves all his life.
Therefore, everything he wrote and claimed to believe was a lie.
The fact that a person's claims are not consistent with his or her actions might indicate that the person is a hypocrite (a person who acts against what they claim to believe). But this does not prove his or her claims are false. In the above case, whether Jefferson owned slaves or not has no bearing on whether freedom and equality are desirable ideals, and whether or not Thomas Jefferson aspired to them.
IDENTIFY ad hominem on TV, in the news, or in movies.
