Ivy’s Vine

Ad hominum argument

September 24th, 2009

I saw this video on YouTube, and one of the arguments and counter-arguments struck me as interesting.

What struck me, in the argument and counter-argument, was the ad hominum fallacy.  The ad hominum fallacy is very common in modern political discourse, sadly.  When Kirk says that the Origin of Species is wrong because Hitler had some involvement, he is committing this fallacy.  When Cristina counters that Christianity must be wrong as Hitler claimed to practice it, she is committing that same fallacy.  It’s a common trap to fall into, actually, and you’ll hear it frequently if you listen to political talk radio.

To show where this fails, let’s do a little thought experiment.  Imagine you are in a room.  Inside you find Mother Theresa, arguably the finest person in all humanith, and Adolf Hitler, equally arguably the worst. The following conversation ensues.

Theresa:  You might do well to read Milton’s Inferno as a cautionary tale.

Adolf:  That was Dante, not Milton.

Theresa: No, it was most definitely Milton.

By the logic governing the ad hominum argument we can prove that, as Hitler is trying to aver that Dante wrote the Inferno and Mother Theresa is arguing for it being written by Milton, and that clearly Mother Theresa is both smarter and worthier, that therefore the Inferno was written by Milton.

Except that it wasn’t.

In truth, it doesn’t matter who upholds a particular case, or how many people uphold it (I would love to explain the argumentum ad populam fallacy to the guy on NY1 who claims in one frequently run promo that the majority of New Yorkers “agree with me, not you” and then sits back looking smug having espoused such poor logic).  What matters is the discernible facts and merits of the case at hand.

As to the evolution debate, I favor something Darwin alluded to and a rabbi whose name I still can’t recall expounded on.  Which is more remarkable, for G-d to have hand crafted every species in a labor-intensive brute force method, or for G-d to have set into the world one single-celled organism and one natural law, and have such humble beginnings bloom into all we see around us?

Entry Filed under: Pontification