Statement #o1 Discussion

Below is the statement as it appears with the fallacy marked as correct. You can see the totals of most frequent responses to this statement. And after reading the any discussion going on below, you can select your choice(s) for the correct answer. For now, whoever posts each statement can update corrections.

Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong."
Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest."
Bill: "What about the arguments I gave to support my position?"
Dave: "Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope, so I can't believe what you say."

Ad Hominem
AKA Ad Hominem Abusive, Personal Attack
Category: Fallacies of Relevance (Red Herrings) → Ad hominems (Genetic Fallacies)

Translated from Latin to English, "ad Hominem" means "against the man" or "against the person."

An ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of "argument" has the following form:

Person A makes claim X.
Person B makes an attack on person A.
Therefore A's claim is false.

The reason why an ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).

Ad Hominem

1,472 Total Answer Attempts 49%
716 Correctly Popped Fallacies
756 Incorrectly Un/Popped

Example from LaBossiere's Forty Two Fallacies

( Random Image )

Most Common Responses

716 - Ad Hominem
94 - Guilt by Association
60 - Circumstantial Ad Hominem
50 - Ad Hominem Tu Quoque
49 - Biased Generalization
43 - Personal Attack
43 - Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief
34 - Genetic Fallacy
31 - Poisoning the Well
30 - Appeal to Ridicule
27 - Hasty Generalization
26 - Appeal to Spite
26 - Appeal to Belief
21 - Appeal to Common Practice
20 - Appeal to Authority
20 - Fallacy of Division
18 - Appeal to Tradition
18 - Relativist Fallacy
17 - Red Herring
12 - Fallacy of Composition
12 - Confusing Cause and Effect
11 - False Dilemma
10 - Burden of Proof
10 - Appeal to Popularity
9 - Begging the Question
8 - Post Hoc
8 - Ignoring a Common Cause
8 - Slippery Slope
7 - Special Pleading
5 - Appeal to Flattery
5 - Middle Ground
5 - Misleading Vividness
5 - Appeal to Pity
4 - Appeal to Fear
4 - Peer Pressure
3 - Appeal to Emotion
3 - Appeal to Novelty

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Circumstantial Ad Hominem

I thought the answer was circumstantial ad hominem, because he happens to be a priest, his arguments are wrong.

10.20.15 20:43 by terabyter9000

+ Reply 2 comments downstream. Please read them before replying.

I built this site to help myself train on logical fallacies, and am no expert, but think you make a VERY good point. And it also seems that site users are tending not to get this one correct. Do you think I should disable this example by Dr. LaBossiere, since it probably is more of a Circumstantial Ad Hominem? Thanks so much!

10.22.15 09:15 by wikiworldorder

+ Reply

It would have been Circumstantial Ad Eminem if Dave disliked Bill on him being a priest, and so was countering him by considering him vile for that reason. It would have been Ad-Hominem if Dave counter argued by attacking the character of bill. That depends on how much ill-will you read into the phrase 'lackey of the pope', which may necessarily be so. There needs to be contempt or derision for ad-hominem. I think it is a Genetic fallacy/fallacy of origins/attack on the bias of a source, because from the given reading, Dave may be chill with Bill despite him being a priest, but he does not agree with him because with reference to the topic of the argument abortions, he thinks priests are biased. The fallacy committed by Dave is to think the Bill's argument is wrong only because of the speculation of Bill's bias. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_fallacy Genetic Fallacy is not listed in the original 42 labossiere

5.29.17 21:52 by hgkamath

+ Reply

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