Understanding the Principles of Argumentation #3

[Daniel Phillips]

This is the third in my "Understanding the Principles of Argumentation"
series.  Rusty has obligingly provided us with a fine example of an "ad
hominem attack":

On Monday 16 September 2002 04:17, Rusty Russell wrote:
> > Don't forget that the Unix way has traditionally been to use the
> > simplest interface that will do the job; if you propose a fat
> > interface you need to prove that the thin one cannot do the job.
> 
> Gee, really?  You're so clever!
> 
> You patronising little shit,

An ad hominem attack is a logical fallacy where the arguer attacks the
person, rather than the issue:

   http://home.mcn.net/~montanabw/fallacies.html

-- 
Daniel