Many examples of ancient non-fallacious ad hominem arguments are preserved in the works of the Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus. Aristotle, in his work Sophistical Refutations, detailed the fallaciousness of putting the questioner but not the argument under scrutiny. The various types of ad hominem arguments have been known in the West since at least the ancient Greeks. John Locke revived the examination of ad hominem arguments in the 17th century.Īristotle (384–322 BC) was the first philosopher who distinguished arguments attacking a thesis or attacking other persons. Since the validity of an argument is found within its content, which stands apart from any property of the one making the argument, these 'valid' ad hominem exceptions are of questionable validity regardless of rhetorical effect.Īd hominem arguments were first studied in ancient Greece. Another type of valid ad hominem argument generally only encountered in specialized philosophical usage refers to the dialectical strategy of using the target's own beliefs and arguments against them, while not agreeing with the validity of those beliefs and arguments. In this case, counterarguments may be made that the target is dishonest, lacks the claimed expertise, or has a conflict of interest. Valid ad hominem arguments occur in informal logic, where the person making the argument relies on arguments from authority such as testimony, expertise, or a selective presentation of information supporting the position they are advocating. The most common form of ad hominem is "A makes a claim x, B asserts that A holds a property that is unwelcome, and hence B concludes that argument x is wrong".įallacious ad hominem reasoning occurs where the validity of an argument is not based on deduction or syllogism, but on an attribute of the person putting it forward. Typically, 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 addressing the substance of the argument itself. A target pointing towards a person's head, illustrating ad hominem argumentsĪd hominem ( Latin for 'to the person'), short for argumentum ad hominem ( Latin for 'argument to the person'), refers to several types of arguments, most of which are fallacious.
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