Doug Walton, Canadian academic and author, has argued that ad hominem reasoning is not always fallacious
Argumentum ad verecundiam fallacy (argument from authority), supporting argumentum ad hominem fallacy.
Nicely done.
In those cases, the utterer's circumstances are part of the argument, and it's not 'ad hominem' to point that out - an ad hominem is personally attacking the target rather than attacking the argument. "But Marx was not a prole" is not attacking Marx personally.
Re:A Difficult Situation
by dinkumthinkum on Thursday March 21, 2013 @09:06PM
(#5420663)
No, you can say "so and so argues such and such" all you want, that doesn't make it valid. I claim it is not valid and also claim you have not provided any justification for it. It simply does not follow. As for rhetorical value ... Being a sophist is not the same as being logically consistent.
(wikipedia article on ad hominem)
In this case, i'd think it's pretty fucking valid.