wedrifid comments on Rationality Quotes September 2013 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Vaniver 04 September 2013 05:02AM

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Comment author: SaidAchmiz 02 September 2013 03:08:22PM 17 points [-]

That's not even an example of the ad hominem fallacy.

"You have an ugly face, so you're wrong" is ad hominem. "You have an ugly face" is not. It's just a statement. Did the speaker imply the second part? Maybe... but probably not. It was probably just an insulting rejoinder.

Insults, i.e. "Attacking you, not your argument", is not what ad hominem is. It's a fallacy, remember? It's no error in reasoning to call a person ugly. Only when you conclude from this that they are wrong do you commit the fallacy.

So:

A: It's wrong to stab your neighbor and take their stuff.
B: Your face is ugly.
A: The ugliness of my face has no bearing on moral...
B, interrupting: Didn't say it does! Your face is still ugly!

Comment author: wedrifid 05 September 2013 02:35:34PM 5 points [-]

"You have an ugly face, so you're wrong" is ad hominem. "You have an ugly face" is not. It's just a statement. Did the speaker imply the second part? Maybe... but probably not.

I contest the empirical claim you are making about human behaviour. That reply in that context very nearly always constitutes arguing against the point the other is making. In particular, the example to which you are replying most definitely is an example of a fallacious ad hominem.

A: The ugliness of my face has no bearing on moral...

In common practice it does. The rules do change based on attractiveness. (Tangential.)

Comment author: [deleted] 06 September 2013 08:54:57AM 0 points [-]

In common practice it does. The rules do change based on attractiveness. (Tangential.)

But A hadn't specified who the stabber is or who the stabbee is.