Ad Hominem

Question	Answer
True or False The following is a simplified example of Ad Hominem 1: Person x believes claim Y 2: Person x is bad Conclusion: Claim Y is bad	TRUE
Explain why Ad Hominem is fallacy.	Just because someone who makes a claim might have a bad trait, does not mean that their claim must share the bad trait. As the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. That is a bad person can be right about something despite being a bad person.
Is the following an example of Ad Hominem, and why? Joe Blogs was fired from his last job for stealing company funds. Furthermore, he has fraud on his criminal record. We therefore should not support his claim that he would make a good minister of parliament.	This is not an example of Ad Hominem. This is because the claim that is being made, is about the character being criticised. Joe Blogs claim is that he would make a good minister of parliament. The premises that he is a fraudulent thief is relevant to such a claim.
What does the Latin phrase "argumentum ad hominem" translate to?	“argument to the person” It is meant to illustrate the fact that the arguer is attacking the other 'person' who holds the opposite position, instead of attacking the other's argument.

Resource summary

	Created by Jackson St George about 6 years ago