[Buddha-l] Prominent Neobuddhist proposes religion based blacklisting for government jobs

[Curt Steinmetz]

Just for the record, Richard conflated (or at least combined) three 
separate charges:

(1) that my brief overview of Harris near complete lack of scientific 
backing was "irrelevant".
(2) that in doing so I had "weakened" my "case".
(3) and that this amounted to an "ad hominem" attack.

I also believe that he also meant, as so many people do these days, to 
mean not just the literal, original definition of "ad hominem" but the 
erroneous connotation that "ad hominem" is in and of itself a "logical 
fallacy".

If all he meant to say was that I was arguing in the style that Socrates 
invariably used whenever he discussed philosophy, then he certainly 
failed to communicate that with any clarity.

Curt

Richard Hayes wrote:
> On Jul 30, 2009, at 1:58 PM, Curt Steinmetz wrote:
>
>   
>> Secondly, I was attacking Harris' credentials.
>>     
>
> Exactly. That's what made your attack ad hominem. Irving M. Copi says  
> this about the argumentum ad hominem: "It is committed when, instead  
> of trying to disprove the truth of what is asserted, one attacks the  
> man who made the assertion."
>
> Saying that Harris does not have the proper credentials to impugn a  
> well-known prize-winning scientist commits two fallacies of  
> irrelevance. First the attack on Harris's credentials is irrelevant to  
> the case at hand and constitutes an argumentum ad hominem. Secondly,  
> the appeal to the scientist's reputation is also irrelevant and  
> constitutes an argumentum ad verecundiam (an appeal to authority).
>
> Given that 99.98% of all discourse in the United States is made up of  
> informal fallacies, with strong preference being given to the two just  
> cited, it is not surprising that even on buddha-l one will  
> occasionally encounter a fallacious argument. There is no harm in  
> pointing them out from time to time.
>
> Richard
>
>
>
>
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