Questions About The Notion of An ad Hominem Fallacy
Doug Walton has argued that ad hominem reasoning is not always fallacious, and that in some instances, questions of personal conduct, character, motives, etc., are legitimate and relevant to the issue, as when it directly involves hypocrisy, or actions contradicting the subject's words.
The philosopher Charles Taylor has argued that ad hominem reasoning is essential to understanding certain moral issues, and contrasts this sort of reasoning with the apodictic reasoning of philosophical naturalism.
Read more about this topic: Ad Hominem
Famous quotes containing the words questions about the, questions, notion and/or fallacy:
“If you think about it seriously, all the questions about the soul and the immortality of the soul and paradise and hell are at bottom only a way of seeing this very simple fact: that every action of ours is passed on to others according to its value, of good or evil, it passes from father to son, from one generation to the next, in a perpetual movement.”
—Antonio Gramsci (18911937)
“Of immortality, the soul, when well employed, is incurious. It is so well, that it is sure that it will be well. It asks no questions of the Supreme Power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.”
—George Berkeley (16851753)
“It would be a fallacy to deduce that the slow writer necessarily comes up with superior work. There seems to be scant relationship between prolificness and quality.”
—Fannie Hurst (18891968)