[ExI] Striving for Objectivity Across Different Cultures

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Tue Aug 19 17:26:51 UTC 2008


On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> At 08:06 AM 8/19/2008 +0000, BillK wrote:
>
>> > Stefano writes
>> >
>> >> Arguments ad personam are always more compelling than arguments ad rem.
>> >
>> > Ah. So thanks for removing a misunderstanding I had. I was inferring
>> > that
>> > "ad personam" and "ad hominem"
>> > were the same thing.   :-)           [1]
>>
>> I think you have to remember that Stefano is a lawyer.
>> Legal argument is a strange beast that lives in a different world to
>> normal life.
>
> Objection! Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial!
>
> Stefano means "ad personam" and this has zero to do with "ad hominem". We
> went through this a month or so back.
>
> Oddly enough, wikipedia gets it wrong:
>


Wikipedia wrong?  Shurely not?     :)

But it is not just wikipedia if your version is correct.

How about going back to the Latin?

<http://www.epistemelinks.com/main/latinwords.asp>

Argumentum ad hominem - Argument against the man (person). A fallacy
consisting of criticizing a person rather than that person's ideas or
argument, usually on the assumption that the the idea/argument is more
or less sound depending on the qualities of the person endorsing it.

Argumentum ad personam - Argument to the person. General form of
Argumentum ad hominem (or ad feminam to distinguish women).


BillK



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