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argumentum ad hominem
Jun. 30th, 2008 10:42 pmSo I've been reading about logical fallacies lately.
I hadn't heard the phrase before but I knew about the concept. A fallacy is apparently a flawed logical structure that seems to make sense, and so gets used in arguments and debates, but in actuality doesn't hold up and thus renders the argument invalid.
In particular I'm interested in the argumentum ad hominem. I admit my interest is pretty selfish. I have a habit of saying things that other people disagree with. I don't know. I never think I'm saying anything that goddamn revolutionary, but maybe I just never learned to keep my mouth shut. The problem is that I was raised in a household where a good conversation was considered the pinnacle of entertainment. My father in particular has always loved nothing more than a good logical debate. The exercise of rhetoric pleases him immensely. If he brings up a topic and finds that everyone in the room agrees with him on it, he'll switch sides and argue the other side of the argument, just to keep the conversation going. He just loves this and will happily do it for hours.
So I grew up, well... disagreeing with a lot of things. (Incidentally I got my father to more or less admit that there wasn't actually anything wrong with gay marriage, and pointed out his logical fallacies wherein he was taking the boring party line in saying that next people would marry their dogs. Not actually a valid argument! Go figure.)
This is kind of a bad habit, apparently, in the real world.
The worst part, in my view, is that nobody is accustomed to entertaining complex thoughts anymore. By which I mean, nobody's got the attention span to follow a decently-constructed logical argument through to its conclusion.
I bring something up, intending to argue it in a methodical fashion, and what do I get in answer to my opening argument?
If you've been following along so far, instead of just skimming along looking for a word to be offended by (which happens more than you'd think; I'm thinking of just sprinkling every entry with words that piss people off-- we'll start with BESTIALITY to go with the earlier argument on gay marriage), you'll know what I get.
You're absolutely right. Argumentum ad hominem.
I sort of wish somebody'd whip out the old argumentum ad baculum or maybe get some nice categorical syllogisms up in this piece.
Print THAT out and make a complaint about some other person with it, OFFENSIVE WORD!
Now I'm going to be more offensive.
Yay!
Yeah I'm pretty sleep-deprived at the moment.
ARSE! FECK! GIRLS!
I hadn't heard the phrase before but I knew about the concept. A fallacy is apparently a flawed logical structure that seems to make sense, and so gets used in arguments and debates, but in actuality doesn't hold up and thus renders the argument invalid.
In particular I'm interested in the argumentum ad hominem. I admit my interest is pretty selfish. I have a habit of saying things that other people disagree with. I don't know. I never think I'm saying anything that goddamn revolutionary, but maybe I just never learned to keep my mouth shut. The problem is that I was raised in a household where a good conversation was considered the pinnacle of entertainment. My father in particular has always loved nothing more than a good logical debate. The exercise of rhetoric pleases him immensely. If he brings up a topic and finds that everyone in the room agrees with him on it, he'll switch sides and argue the other side of the argument, just to keep the conversation going. He just loves this and will happily do it for hours.
So I grew up, well... disagreeing with a lot of things. (Incidentally I got my father to more or less admit that there wasn't actually anything wrong with gay marriage, and pointed out his logical fallacies wherein he was taking the boring party line in saying that next people would marry their dogs. Not actually a valid argument! Go figure.)
This is kind of a bad habit, apparently, in the real world.
The worst part, in my view, is that nobody is accustomed to entertaining complex thoughts anymore. By which I mean, nobody's got the attention span to follow a decently-constructed logical argument through to its conclusion.
I bring something up, intending to argue it in a methodical fashion, and what do I get in answer to my opening argument?
If you've been following along so far, instead of just skimming along looking for a word to be offended by (which happens more than you'd think; I'm thinking of just sprinkling every entry with words that piss people off-- we'll start with BESTIALITY to go with the earlier argument on gay marriage), you'll know what I get.
You're absolutely right. Argumentum ad hominem.
I sort of wish somebody'd whip out the old argumentum ad baculum or maybe get some nice categorical syllogisms up in this piece.
Print THAT out and make a complaint about some other person with it, OFFENSIVE WORD!
Now I'm going to be more offensive.
Yay!
Yeah I'm pretty sleep-deprived at the moment.
ARSE! FECK! GIRLS!
