Hominem (circumstantial), argumentum ad 91No one in this university audience can be opposed to handing out state
money to subsidize services, otherwise you would not be here, occupying
a subsidized place.
(Actually, it is other state handouts which students oppose.)A variant of the fallacy dismisses a person's views as repre-
senting only their special circumstances. It assumes that an oil
company executive can reflect only his corporation's interest
when he voices an opinion on the future of energy supplies. In
the first place, the executive may well have independent views
which differ from those of his company. In the second place,
there is nothing to say that the corporation view is not the cor-
rect one, self-interested though it may be. The fallacy arises in
this version by the wanton dismissal of possibly relevant material
as much as by bringing in irrelevant matters such as the cir-
cumstances of the audience. Even if it can be shown why an
opponent thinks as he does, it still does not show him to be
wrong. ('As an opera-lover, you will be the first to agree that we
need more subsidy for the arts.')
The appeal to special circumstances occurs in arguments
addressed to specialist audiences. The American expression
'building a constituency' refers quite often to the process of
adding together enough interest groups, all of which give sup-
port on account of their special circumstances. An adept, if
unscrupulous, politician might build a power-base by directing
argument not to the general good of society but to the special
circumstances of public-sector employees, trade unions, welfare
recipients, ethnic minorities and groups involved in sexual poli-
tics. The Tightness or wrongness of the programme need not
come into it if enough special circumstances can be appealed to.
Both versions of the argumentum ad hominem circumstantial
can be used to advantage. You should employ the first version
with respect to circumstances which are broad enough to