Argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the person, argument against the person, The Fallacy of Personal Attack
Type
Irrelevant Argument, Informal Argument
Description
An argument that attacks the person who holds a view or advances an argument, rather than commenting on the view or responding to the argument.
Example
"You claim that this man is innocent, but you cannot be trusted since you are a criminal as well."
Form
An ad hominem argument has the basic form:
Person 1 makes claim X There is something objectionable about person 1 Therefore claim X is false
Treatment
Point out the that the individual is being attacked not the argument and that this has no relevance to the deductive logic of the core argument and to physical world evidence.