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Ad hominem (Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem, refers to several types of arguments that are usually fallacious.Often currently this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than the substance of the argument itself.
Circumstantial ad hominem – stating that the arguer's personal situation or perceived benefit from advancing a conclusion means that their conclusion is wrong. [73] Poisoning the well – a subtype of ad hominem presenting adverse information about a target person with the intention of discrediting everything that the target person says. [74]
This argument is a form of genetic fallacy; in which the conclusion about the validity of a statement is justified by appealing to the characteristics of the person who is speaking, such as also in the ad hominem fallacy. [17] For this argument, Locke coined the term argumentum ad verecundiam (appeal to shamefacedness/modesty) because it ...
Diverting the argument to unrelated issues with a red herring (Ignoratio elenchi) Insulting someone's character (argumentum ad hominem) Assuming the conclusion of an argument, a kind of circular reasoning, also called "begging the question" (petitio principii) Making jumps in logic (non sequitur)
ad hominem: to/at the man: Provides the term argumentum ad hominem, a logical fallacy in which a person themselves is criticized, when the subject of debate is their idea or argument, on the mistaken assumption that the soundness of an argument is dependent on the qualities of the proponent. ad honorem: to/for the honour
From a logical and argumentative point of view, whataboutism is considered a variant of the tu-quoque pattern (Latin 'you too', term for a counter-accusation), which is a subtype of the ad-hominem argument.
In the argument above, the statement, "Fred's cat has fleas" is up for debate (i.e. is a claim), but in the explanation, the statement, "Fred's cat has fleas" is assumed to be true (unquestioned at this time) and just needs explaining. [19] Arguments and explanations largely resemble each other in rhetorical use.
Appeal to motive is a pattern of argument which consists in challenging a thesis by calling into question the motives of its proposer. [1] It can be considered as a special case of the ad hominem circumstantial argument. As such, this type of argument is an informal fallacy. [citation needed]