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Avoiding Logical Fallacies: ad hominem

Of course, this is just a thought experiment.

The story so far: My pal, Victor Dillweed, has a time traveling baseball cap. He calls it his Chrono-Hat, and when he wears it he can travel backwards and forwards through time, visiting the far future and the ancient past. His visits are instantaneous, ephemeral, and he can only make a return journey if he comes back empty handed. Or so he claims. These rules, after all, leave him a little short on hard evidence. As usual, the skep/kids (Winston and Julia) and I attempt to debunk his claims — but this time around make the mistake of ad hominem.

Of course, this is just a thought experiment. My explorations of logical fallacies is meant as a light-hearted approach to discussing the nuances of common mistakes in the critical thought process. The full index of fallacies can be found here. By examining each of these fallacies I hope to provide opportunity for (1) my own further education, research, and understanding, (2) the education of others, and (3) a reference and foundation for further articles, entries, and topics in this blog. And to proceed with this exploration I am going to fall back on the tried and tested (albeit composed of my own original details) fictitious example and quasi-supernatural thought experiment: skep/dad’s all-natural, one-size-fits-all, time traveling baseball cap, also known as The Chrono-Hat.

The Fallacy of ad hominem

skep/dad: Hi kids. So I just spoke with our old friend, Mr. Dillweed. He says he’s been time traveling to the past again and this time had a long conversation with an old English author named Will Shakespeare. Do you all know who Shakespeare is?

Winston: I think so. Didn’t he write Romeo and Juliet?

skep/dad: Yup. And a bunch of other plays and poems, too. He’s a very famous playwright who lived about four hundred years ago. And Mr. Dillweed says that he went back in time and had a chat with Mr. Shakespeare.

Julia: I think that he must be lying. How could he have gone into the past, right?

skep/dad: Well, you know all about his Chrono-Hat. He says he can use it to travel backwards and forwards in time, but the way it works makes it tough for him to give us evidence that he has actually gone anywhere. We really need to judge what he says based on his proof. What do you think would make good proof of his visit? And how can we tell if he’s making it up or not? I want you tell me. What makes you think that he’s fibbing and just inventing this story?

Winston: He makes up a lot of things.

Julia: He’s crazy.

skep/dad: I don’t think we can use either of those points as evidence for his claim. True, it doesn’t help us to very easily believe him since he always seems to be making things up — but maybe this time he’s telling us the truth.

Julia: Well — I still don’t like him very much.

skep/dad: We need to remember that when we are looking for proof for any story that we are careful to look for the provable and unprovable parts in the argument and not for faults in the person making that claim. When we decide not to agree with something because we don’t like the person who says it we are making the mistake of argumentum ad hominem which is a Latin phrase that means “arguing against the man.”

Winston: But, dad, we still think you’re smarter that Mr. Dillweed.

skep/dad: I appreciate that, kids. But you’re still making the same mistake in your logic as before. We can’t look at the people making arguments on either side of the story and decide based on the person. No matter what you think of me, we need to look for evidence about the story itself. It looks like we’re going to need to look for a different way to think about this problem…

The SkepDad Blog is meant to casually reflect on questions surrounding parenting and raising kids to become critical thinkers by asking questions and examining parenting ideas with a skeptical eye for facts and science. Each article is one dad's personal opinion, backed (where relevant) by literature and published research, or otherwise based on personal experiences and insights. SkepDad welcomes balanced discussion, comments, and ideas.

January 2, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Skeptical Mindsets

Popularity: 16%

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