Steven D'Aprano <st...@remove-this-cybersource.com.au> writes: > An ad hominem attack is not when somebody makes a criticism of you > personally. It is when somebody says something along the lines of > "Don't pay any attention to Alf, he doesn't know what he's talking > about, he's a <whatever>".
In other words, a criticism of the person is only a fallacy if it is both irrelevant to the argument *and* used to dismiss the argument. Many criticisms are introduced not because they directly connect to the argument, but simply because they are relevant to the demonstrated behaviour at the time. > You might not like the personal criticism, but that doesn't make it > either an attack or a fallacy. Exactly. A personal criticism can be expressed *as a criticism*, and be valid or not without needing to be relevant to your chosen argument. Look to the criticism on its own merits, and decide what to do about it. -- \ “If there were not God, there would be no atheists.” —G. K. | `\ Chesterton | _o__) | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
