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Calling someone names is not an ad-hominem. Making accusations about a person's character can be a valid inference based on their behavior. What makes an ad-ho
by lliamander 6y ago
Calling someone names is not an ad-hominem. Making accusations about a person's character can be a valid inference based on their behavior. What makes an ad-hominem is thinking that a person's character (or other attributes) has any bearing on the correctness of their argument.
For example:
"X is a bad person, therefore their argument is invalid" is an ad-hominem. Bad people can still make valid arguments.
"X's argument is both invalid and in bad faith, therefore they are a bad person" is a logical inference.
- vkou 6y ago> Calling someone names is not an ad-hominem It's not, but it also has no place on HN.
- afiori 6y agoThe insult was not directed at the commenter, rather to a group of people that popularized the quote. It is the difference between "If you believe X then your school must have had brain-dead teachers" and "If you believe X you are brain-dead"