Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (
More info?)
<chris.spol@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1113749218.603705.207780@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
> Malachias Invictus wrote:
>> "Jeff Heikkinen" <no.way@jose.org> wrote in message
>> news:MPG.1ccb2575132c478d98a110@news.easynews.com...
>>
>> > For what it's worth I suspect the majority view would be MSB's.
>>
>> Although I think the pissing match here has become tedious beyond
> belief, I
>> am on the side of your "majority view".
>>
>> > The workbook being used by the prof I'm currently working for, for
> example
>> > (quick - what fallacy am I committing, given that this is the only
>> > evidence I'll be giving in this post?
🙂,
>>
>> Cute.
>>
>> > says:
>> >
>> > When such a counter-argument is made by means of bringing up some
> fact,
>> > not about the original argument itself, but about the person making
> it,
>> > the counter-argument attacks the person. For such an argument to be
>> > fallacious is for the facts mentioned about the person not to be
>> > relevant to evaluating the person's claim or argument. Such an
> argument
>> > is not fallacious when the facts about the person genuinely *are*
>> > relevant to evaluating the person's claim or argument.
>>
>> This is pretty much exactly the definition of ad hominem I was
> taught.
>
> I must admit, this is much further than I would have gone. I have
> never considered mere insults to be ad hominem fallacies ("by means of
> bringing up some fact") -- I always presumed you needed to actually use
> the facts *as a way to divert attention from the argument*. Doesn't
> the above imply that Bradd's position (an insult is an ad hominem
> attack) is correct?
No, not really. According to the definition above, it has to be the means
by which the counter-argument is made. If a non-fallacious counter-argument
is made, *and* insults are thrown in, provided the insults are not a form of
counter-argument, there is no ad hominem.
--
^v^v^Malachias Invictus^v^v^
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the Master of my fate:
I am the Captain of my soul.
from _Invictus_, by William Ernest Henley