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That's not what ad hominem means. Ad hominem is when you disagree with an idea because of who supports it. For example, "gun control is a bad idea because Hitle

• rubyrescue 16y ago
  No, it's not. Ad hominem is when you argue that something wrong with the person invalidates the person's argument. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
• astine 16y ago
  That's an association fallacy, not an ad-hominem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy Ad-hominem is where you use qualities of the arguer as disproof of the argument.
  • bobbyi 16y ago
    > Ad-hominem is where you use qualities of the arguer as disproof of the argument. Right, which is what he didn't do. "I don't like Rails because DHH has an ugly hairdo" would have been an ad hominem. In this case, he is disagreeing with the idea itself.
    • astine 16y ago
      No, that would have merely been an ill-informed opinion and a non-sequitor. One can feel however one wants about a subject and for any reason and still not commit a logical fallacy because feelings are a-logical. For an actual fallacy, we need actual premises: "Ruby is good," "Rails is bad," etc. An ad-hominem is even more specific. The premise must be disputed because of the arguer. So, if DHH makes statements about Ruby or Rails, and one argues that those statements are false because of DHH's hairdo, then that would be an ad-hominem.