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Politics : A US National Health Care System?
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To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (5248)3/3/2008 7:15:18 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 42652
 
Many ad-hominems involve personal attacks, but not all personal attacks are examples of the ad-hominem fallacy.

If you tell someone "your an idiot", than you may be making a false statement, and you certainly are making a personal attack, but if that's all you said, then its probably not an ad-hominem. (I say "its probably not", rather than simply "its not", because it could be if you said it in the right context for example in response to someone asking how or why their argument was wrong)

OTOH if you say "You are an idiot so your claim of X is wrong, than you would be committing the ad-hominem fallacy (and still would be even if the person really was an idiot.

But it doesn't have to be an attack to be an ad-hominem. If you said that a doctors argument that doctors should make more money was wrong, because he's just saying it because he is a doctor and wants money, than your statement might not be considered an attack but it would be ad-hominem.

OTOH a person's motives would be relevant if they are making an argument from authority with themselves as an authority. Then they aren't actually making a logical argument (which can be examined in its own right, even if you don't know who made it), but rather just relying on their word on the issue.
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