An ad hominem (Latin: "to the man") short for argumentum ad hominem is an attempt to link the truth of a claim to a negative characteristic or belief of the person advocating it.1 The ad hominem is normally described as a logical fallacy2 but it is not always fallacious; in some instances questions of personal conduct character motives etc. are legitimate and relevant to the issue.3

The philosopher Charles Taylor has argued that ad hominem reasoning is essential to understanding certain moral issues and contrasts this sort of reasoning with the apodictic reasoning of philosophical naturalism.4 Contents 1 Types 1.1 Abusive 1.2 Circumstantial 1.3 Tu quoque 1.4 Guilt by association 2 Common misconceptions 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links Types Abusive

Abusive ad hominem (also called personal abuse or personal attacks) usually involves insulting or belittling one's opponent in order to attack his claim or invalidate his argument but can also involve pointing out factual but apparent character flaws or actions that are irrelevant to the opponent's argument. This tactic is logically fallacious because insults and negative facts about the opponent's personal character have nothing to do with the logical merits of the opponent's arguments or assertions.

Examples: "You can't believe Jack when he says the proposed policy would help the economy. He doesn't even have a job." "Candidate Jane's proposal about zoning is ridiculous. She was caught cheating on her taxes in 2003." "Jeff's argument on LeBron James' failures in the NBA finals aren't worth reading everyone knows he is a "LeBron" hater."

An abusive ad hominem can apply to a judgment of cultural works or academic efforts based on the behavior or unconventional political beliefs of an artist author or musician or the taste of an infamous person who loved a certain work.

Examples: Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose so his music was worthless. Leni Riefenstahl was a Nazi so her film The Triumph of the Will is devoid of merit. Sylvia Plath was a depressive who eventually committed suicide so her works are unreadable. That Boris Godunov was the favorite opera of Joseph Stalin indicates the worthlessness of the opera. What Ted Kaczynski wrote about boundary conditions in mathematics is shown false due to his crimes. White men are "privileged" so they can't comment on female oppression. Circumstantial

Ad hominem circumstantial points out that someone is in circumstances such that he is disposed to take a particular position. Ad hominem circumstantial constitutes an attack on the bias of a source. This is fallacious because a disposition to make a certain argument does not make the argument false; this overlaps with the genetic fallacy (an argument that a claim is incorrect due to its source).5

The circumstantial fallacy applies only where the source taking a position is only making a logical argument from premises that are generally accepted. Where the source seeks to convince an audience of the truth of a premise by a claim of authority or by personal observation observation of their circumstances may reduce the evidentiary weight of the claims sometimes to zero.6

Examples: Mandy Rice-Davies's famous testimony during the Profumo Affair "Well he would say that wouldn't he" is an example of a valid circumstantial argument. Her point was that since a man in a prominent position accused of an affair with a callgirl would deny the claim whether it was true or false his denial in itself carries little evidential weight against the claim of an affair. Note however that this argument is valid only insofar as it devalues the denial; it does not bolster the original claim. To construe evidentiary invalidation of the denial as evidentiary validation of the original claim is fallacious (on several different bases including that of argumentum ad hominem); however likely the man in question would be to deny an affair that did in fact happen he could only be more likely to deny an affair that never did. Conflict of Interest: Where a source seeks to convince by a claim of authority or by personal observation identification of conflicts of interest are not ad hominem it is generally well accepted that an "authority" needs to be objective and impartial and that an audience can only evaluate information from a source if they know about conflicts of interest that may affect the objectivity of the source. Identification of a conflict of interest is appropriate and concealment of a conflict of interest is a problem. Tu quoque Main article: Tu quoque Ad hominem tu quoque (literally: "You too!") refers to a claim that the source making the argument has spoken or acted in a way inconsistent with the argument. In particular if Source A criticizes the actions of Source B a tu quoque response is that Source A has acted in the same way. This argument is fallacious because it does not disprove the argument; if the premise is true then Source A may be a hypocrite but this does not make the statement less credible from a logical perspective. Indeed Source A may be in a position to provide personal testimony to support the argument. For example a father may tell his son not to start smoking as he will regret it when he is older and the son may point out that his father is or was a smoker. This does not alter the fact that his son may regret smoking when he is older. Guilt by association Main article: Association fallacy Guilt by association can sometimes also be a type of ad hominem fallacy if the argument attacks a source because of the similarity between the views of someone making an argument and other proponents of the argument.5 This form of the argument is as follows: Source S makes claim C. Group G which is currently viewed negatively by the recipient also makes claim C. Therefore source S is viewed by the recipient of the claim as associated to the group G and inherits how negatively viewed it is. Common misconceptions Gratuitous verbal abuse or "name-calling" itself is not an ad hominem or a logical fallacy.678910 In order to become a fallacy the insult would need to given as a reason for believing some conclusion for example "X is idiotically ignorant of politics so why should we listen to him now" See also Ad feminam And you are lynching Negroes Appeal to authority Association fallacy Character assassination Credibility Discrediting tactic Fair Game (Scientology) Fundamental attribution error Negative campaigning Reputation Self-hating Jew Shooting the messenger References "ad hominem: West's Encyclopedia of American Law". Answers.com. 2007-09-10. http://www.answers.com/topic/ad-hominem. Retrieved 2009-11-08.  Walton Douglas (2008). Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach. Cambridge University Press. p. 190.  Walton Douglas (2008). Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach. Cambridge University Press. p. 170.  Taylor Charles (1997). "Explanation and Practical Reason". Philosophical Arguments. Harvard University Press. pp. 3460.  a b Walton Douglas (1998). Ad Hominem Arguments. University of Alabama Press. pp. 1821. ISBN 0-8173-0922-5.  a b Curtis Gary N.. "Argumentum ad Hominem". Fallacy Files. http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adhomine.html. Retrieved 2007-09-10.  "Ad Hominem". Plover.net. http://plover.net/bonds/adhominem.html. Retrieved 2009-11-08.  "Logic Fallacies". The Autonomist. http://theautonomist.com/aaphp/permanent/fallacies.php#adhom. Retrieved 2009-11-08.  "AdHominem". Drury.edu. http://www.drury.edu/ess/Logic/Informal/AdHominem.html. Retrieved 2009-11-08.  "Logical Fallacies Ad Hominem (Personal Attack)". Logicalfallacies.info. http://www.logicalfallacies.info/relevance/ad-hominem/. Retrieved 2009-11-08.  Further reading Hurley Patrick (2000). A Concise Introduction to Logic (7th ed.). Wadsworth. pp. 125128 182. ISBN 0-534-52006-5.  Copi Irving M.; Cohen Carl. Introduction to Logic (8th ed.). pp. 97100.  Walton Douglas (1998). Ad Hominem Arguments. Tuscaloosa: University Alabama Press.  External links Look up ad hominem in Wiktionary the free dictionary. Nizkor.org: Fallacy: Ad Hominem. Nizkor.org: Fallacy: Circumstantial Ad Hominem. Argumentum Ad Hominem the ad hominem fallacy fallacy University of Winnipeg: Argumentation Schemes and Historical Origins of the Circumstantial Ad Hominen ArgumentPDF (70.2 KB) About.com: Argument Against the Person (Argumentum ad hominem) Logical Fallacies: Ad Hominem Infidels.org: Logic and Fallacies: Constructing a Logical Argument (Argumentum ad Hominem) Mission Critical: Introduction to Ad Hominem Fallacies v d eFallacies of relevance General Absurdity  Accident  Ad nauseam  Argument from ignorance  Argument from silence  Argument to moderation  Argumentum ad populum  Base rate  Compound question  Evidence of absence  Invincible ignorance  Loaded question  Moralistic  Naturalistic  Non sequitur  Proof by assertion  Irrelevant conclusion  Special pleading  Straw man  Two wrongs make a right Appeals to emotion Fear  Flattery  Nature  Novelty  Pity  Ridicule  Children's interests  Invented Here  Island mentality  Not Invented Here  Repugnance  Spite Genetic fallacies Ad feminam  Ad hominem (Ad hominem tu quoque)  Appeal to accomplishment  Appeal to authority  Appeal to etymology  Appeal to motive  Appeal to novelty  Appeal to poverty  Appeals to psychology  Appeal to the stone  Appeal to tradition  Appeal to wealth  Association  Bulverism  Chronological snobbery  Ipse dixit (Ipse-dixitism)  Poisoning the well  Pro hominem  Reductio ad Hitlerum Appeals to consequences Appeal to force  Wishful thinking v d ePropaganda techniques Ad hominem  Bandwagon effect  Big Lie  Blood libel  Buzzword  Card stacking  Censorship  Code word  Dog-whistle politics  Doublespeak  Euphemism  Framing  Glittering generality  Government-organized demonstration  Historical revisionism  Ideograph  Indoctrination  Lawfare  Lesser of two evils principle  Limited hangout  Loaded language  Mass games  Newspeak  Obscurantism  Plain folks  Political correctness  Public relations  Slogan  Spin  Weasel word v d eAbuse Types Anti-social behaviour  Bullying  Child abuse  Child sexual abuse  Domestic abuse  Elder abuse  Harassment  Humiliation  Incivility  Institutional abuse  Intimidation  Neglect  Personal abuse  Professional abuse  Psychological abuse  Physical abuse  Sexual abuse  Spiritual abuse  Stalking  Structural abuse  Verbal abuse  more... Related topics Complex post-traumatic stress disorder  Dehumanization  Denial  Destabilisation  Exaggeration  Adult grooming  Child grooming  Lying  Manipulation  Minimisation  Personality disorders  Psychological projection  Psychological trauma  Psychopathy  Rationalization (making excuses)  Victim blaming  Victim playing  Victimisation v d eBullying Types Bullying in academia  Bullying in IT  Bullying in medicine  Bullying in nursing  Bullying in teaching  Bullying in the military  Cyber-bullying  Gay bullying  Hazing  Mobbing  Passive aggression  Peer victimization  Psychological abuse  Rankism  Relational aggression  School bullying  Sexual bullying  School pranks  Verbal abuse  Workplace bullying Elements Betrayal  Bystander support of bullies  Character assassination  Defamation  Destabilisation  Discrediting  Gossiping  Harassment  Humiliation  Incivility  Innuendo  Insulting  Intimidation  Jibe  Moving the goalposts  Personal attacks  Psychological manipulation  Rudeness  Sarcasm  Setting up to fail  Smear campaign  Social rejection  Social undermining  Taunting  Teasing  Whispering campaign  Yelling Organisations Act Against Bullying  Beatbullying  Bullying UK  Kidscape  GRIN Campaign Activists Andrea Adams  Louise Burfitt-Dons  Tim Field  Andy Hickson  Heinz Leymann  Gary Namie  Kenneth Westhues Other Anti-Bullying Day  Anti-Bullying Week  International STAND UP to Bullying Day  Anti-bullying legislation Notable suicides Tyler Clementi  Ryan Halligan  Megan Meier  Phoebe Prince  Nicola Ann Raphael  Dawn-Marie Wesley  Kelly Yeomans Related topics Abuse  Bullycide  Control freak  Complex post-traumatic stress disorder  Emotional blackmail  Just-world hypothesis  Narcissism  Personal boundaries  Personality disorders  Psychological projection  Psychological trauma  Psychopathy  Scapegoating  Self-esteem  Sycophancy  Victim blaming  Victim playing  Victimisation