Ad hominem
Jump to navigation Jump to search Ad hominem (Latin for "to the person"),[1] short for argumentum ad hominem, typically refers to a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attributes of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the the substance of the argument itself.[2] The terms ad mulierem[3] and ad feminam[4] have been used specifically when the person receiving the criticism is female.Fallacious ad hominem reasoning is categorized among informal fallacies,[5][6][7] more precisely as a genetic fallacy, a subcategory of fallacies of irrelevance.
However, the term's original meaning was an argument "calculated to appeal to the person addressed more than to impartial reason".[8] Under this meaning, the term does not refer to a logical fallacy. This meaning survives in philosophical usage, as explained by the philosopher R. Scott Bakker: "Classical Pyrrhonians argued ad hominem, not in the sense of the logical fallacy of that name, but in the sense that their dialectical strategy necessitates the exclusive utilization of the beliefs, convictions, and assumptions of their interlocutors. In other words, they construct their arguments on the basis of what other people hold to be true."[9]
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