How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic (2006)

90 How to Win Every Argument

It is with a heavy heart that I release copies of these photographs and

letters. I ask you whether this council can be seen to be influenced in its

policy toward the new suspension bridge by a man whose behaviour

with an 11 -year-old girl flouts every standard of public and private

behaviour which we, as a council, have a sacred duty to uphold.

(Look out below.)

Hominem (circumstantial), argumentum ad

In the argumentum ad hominem circumstantial, the appeal is to

the special circumstances of the person with whom one is

arguing. Instead of trying to prove the contention true or false on

the evidence, its acceptance is urged because of the position and

interests of those appealed to.

You can't accept the legitimacy of lending for profit. You are a Christian,

and Christ drove the money-lenders from the temple.

(This is not a general argument. It might not do much for a Hindu or

a Jew, for example. The listener is invited to assent because of his

Christian convictions.)

In a similar way people can be asked to accept a view because
of their circumstances as members of the political party which
supports it. In this version of the fallacy the error comes in by
bringing the particular position of the audience into what is
urged as a generally accepted truth. While such tactics might
indeed convince that specific audience, they would not establish
the Tightness or wrongness of what is urged, nor the truth or
falsity of a statement.