Thinking Better, Part 5: The Ad Hominem


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Derek
Derek
14 years ago

James, While technically you are correct about the misuse use of ad hominems against industry funded research, such as your own, you are incorrect that such research can be viewed in the same good light as academia sourced research. In court, there are times when the character of a man can call into question his honesty and his testimony in court. If a man is regular drug user and has been caught stealing repeatedly to feed his habit, it will be difficult to believe him when he tells the court that the officer that caught him doing drugs and robbing… Read more »

Fredrik Gyllensten
15 years ago

Great article James – I will do my best to not do personal attacks when discussing with people 🙂

Denise
15 years ago

Ahhhh… love this one!

jamie hale
15 years ago

I would say that Ad Hominen, is definitely one of the most popular fallacies encountered in the fitness industry. However, there are so many used by people in the fitness industry it is probably hard to determine the most common.

It should be pointed out, even when using a logical fallacy in an argument- and making the argument invalid- it is still possible to have a factual conclusion.

Example:
Jamie Hale says eating excessive calories will make you fat, therefore eating excessive calories will make you fat-
Appeal to Authority fallacy

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