Asking the Right Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed

86 Chapter 7
Sandy: "But what about the arguments I gave to support my position?"
Julie: "Those don't count. You're just a sore loser."
You can start your list of fallacy names with this one. Here is the definition:
F: Ad hominem: An attack, or an insult, on the person, rather than directly addressing
the person's reasons.
Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point
If you have been able to locate assumptions (see Chapters 5 and 6), especially
descriptive assumptions, you already possess a major skill in determining
questionable assumptions and in finding fallacies. The more questionable
the assumption, the less relevant the reasoning. Some "reasons," such as Ad
Hominem arguments, will be so irrelevant to the conclusion that you would
have to supply blatantly erroneous assumptions to provide a logical link. Such
reasoning is a fallacy, and you should immediately reject it.
In the next section, we take you through some exercises in discovering
other common fallacies. Once you know how to look, you will be able to find
most fallacies. We suggest that you adopt the following thinking steps in locating
fallacies:
1. Identify the conclusions and reasons.
2. Always keep the conclusion in mind and consider reasons that you think
might be relevant to it; contrast these reasons with the author's reasons.
3. If the conclusion supports an action, determine whether the reason states
a specific and/or concrete advantage or a disadvantage; if not, be wary!
4. Identify any necessary assumption by asking yourself, "If the reason were
true, what would one have to believe for it to logically support the conclusion,
and what does one have to believe for the reason to be true?"
5. Ask yourself, "Do these assumptions make sense?" If an obviously false
assumption is being made, you have found a fallacy in reasoning, and
that reasoning can then be rejected.
6. Check the possibility of being distracted from relevant reasons by
phrases that strongly appeal to your emotions.