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gjm comments on [Link] Lifehack Article Promoting LessWrong, Rationality Dojo, and Rationality: From AI to Zombies - Less Wrong Discussion

9 Post author: Gleb_Tsipursky 14 November 2015 08:34PM

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Comment author: gjm 19 November 2015 07:45:46PM 0 points [-]

Well, I suppose I'm an external observer (I promise that I am neither OrphanWilde nor Gleb_Tsipursky), and I would say yes it's an ad hominem attack but no it's probably not intended to provoke an angry response. I would guess that other external observers with the same context available to them as to me would mostly say the same.

Comment author: Gleb_Tsipursky 19 November 2015 10:38:43PM 0 points [-]

I perceive an ad hominem attack as by its nature designed to provoke an angry response.

Comment author: gjm 20 November 2015 12:56:27AM 1 point [-]

Why?

It seems to me that there are plenty of other obvious reasons why people might make ad hominem attacks. For instance:

  • They might expect them to influence other people in a direction they like. (I would guess that this motivation is substantially more common than desire to provoke an angry response.)
  • They might be angry (or otherwise upset) themselves, for whatever reason, and respond as angry people often do by attacking in any way that presents itself.
  • They might be failing to distinguish between an idea and the person presenting it, and be only dimly aware that what they're doing is an ad hominem attack at all.
  • They might be hoping to provoke (not an angry response but) reflection on the part of the person being attacked ("wow, I had no idea anyone would react so strongly to what I said; could there be something wrong with it?"). I doubt this works very often, but there might be cases where it's a reasonable last resort.

In this particular case I think the first and last of those are the most likely motives.

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