Tuesday, June 16, 2009

the circumstantial ad hominem fallacy

•Psychoanalyzing people is not a substitute for considering the reasons that people give for what they believe. If you think that no reasonable person would ordinarily be persuaded by certain arguments, then you might find a psychological explanation for why people believe what they do. But this psychological explanation does not provide any reason to reject the arguments or the claim. Using psychological explanations as a refutation is to commit the circumstantial ad hominem fallacy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fallacy question: is this fallacy just a species of the genetic fallacy?