Douglas Walton - Informal Logic

6.4 NON-FALLACIOUS AD HOMINEM ARGUMENTS

The previous examples have indicated that there are many ways in which criticism directed against the person can go wrong and be fallacious. However, the last examples have suggested that in some cases, and to some extent, a personal attack against an opponent’s circumstances or position may be not altogether unreasonable. Does this mean that in some cases arguments against the person could be reasonable? In section 6.1, it has already been suggested that this is indeed the case. And if it is true, it means that we must not reject an argument against the person without giving good reasons.

We saw that example 6.4, from one point of view, could be interpreted as a weak but basically reasonable criticism to raise. Another example will serve to illustrate a reasonable use of the circumstantial argument against the person as a move in argument. Consider the following dialogue.

Example 6.10

George: The notorious problems we have been having with postal strikes means that there is no longer reliable mail service provided by the government.

I think we ought to allow private, for-profit mail-delivery companies to compete on an equal footing with the Post Office.

Bob: But George, you are a communist.

Let us suppose that in this case George is an avowed communist, and has based his previous arguments on many standard communist principles and positions. Now in many cases, calling your opponent in an argument a communist could be a fallacious type of ad hominem attack. However, in this instance, Bob seems to have a reasonable point. If George is an avowed communist, and communists are for state control and against private enterprise, then how can George consistently argue for a for-profit mail service run by private enterprise? It seems like a legitimate question. Of course, George may be able to resolve the ostensible inconsistency in subsequent dialogue. Surely Bob is justified in challenging the consistency of George’s position at this point in the dialogue. If so, then in this case, Bob’s circumstantial argument is not fallacious. It is a reasonable use of the ad hominem argument to challenge George’s position.

If arguments against the person can sometimes be reasonable, we must carefully analyze this type of argument to set out criteria that will enable us to distinguish between the incorrect (fallacious) and reasonable instances of ad hominem argumentation. First, let us address the reasonable type of person-directed criticism in argument.

A personal attack can be a reasonable criticism of an arguer’s position by showing that the concessions or commitments of that arguer are inconsistent with the propositions asserted in his argument. Some might say that such an attack is, or can be, specious because it misses the real point of looking to the external evidence and instead, concentrates on the internal relationships within the arguer’s position. For instance, in example 6.10, some commentators might say that Bob would be better off to evaluate George’s proposal of private mail service on its own merits, rather than raising the internal question of whether the proposal is internally consistent with George’s own political position. What does George’s own internal position matter to anyone else, compared with the very important issue of whether mail service should be public or private?

This point of view has some justification. For external evidence should very often have priority, and ifwe are distracted from that external evidence by purely personal (internal) considerations, that is the very climate in which the personal attack creates the most mischief in argument.

However, internal matters of an arguer’s position can sometimes be important too. If George really is inconsistent in his position and confused -a communist who advocates free enterprise — then it is very important to George to sort out his own position. For one thing, if George’s position does truly contain a logical inconsistency, then it cannot be right. Second, there may be many other readers or listeners affected by George’s argument who may be somewhat sympathetic to some forms of communism, and who may be very irritated and concerned about postal strikes and reliable mail services. For these people, it may be very important to think through the whole issue in much the same way that George is trying to think it through. Even those who strongly reject any communistic political ideals may be concerned to see how a communist could deal with the problems posed by mail strikes. So the internal question ofthe consistency of George’s position on this issue may be very important for George and many others as well.

A third factor is that internal evidence can be enough to swing the balance of acceptance to one side of an argument or the other where external evidence is lacking or cannot be brought to bear on an issue. On a complex and controversial moral or political issue like state control of services, there may be no clear external, factual, or scientific evidence that would definitely resolve the controversy one way or the other. Although internal evidence derived from an arguer’s position may always be weaker than external evidence, sometimes, where it is hard to decide on a controversial topic, weak evidence may be enough to shift the burden of proof.

In such a case, if an arguer adopts a position that is open to a criticism of inconsistency, that may be enough to shift the burden of proof against his case. Such an arguer will be put on the defensive, and his credibility as an advocate of his side of the argument may then be questioned.

A fourth factor is that in some cases a successful argument against the person can render an arguer’s impartiality, sincerity, or trustworthiness open to question. This may be a weak form of argument, but it may be enough to alter the burden ofproofon a controversial issue. And therefore it can be a reasonable criticism.

On controversial issues, hard evidence that can be directly brought to bear on a disputed proposition may be lacking. In such a case, reasonable dialogue may be the only available way of deciding to accept a conclusion or not, short ofdeciding by random choice, or by following one’s dogmatic inclinations. Here, understanding the arguer’s positions both pro and con may help one to arrive at a more intelligent or reasoned decision on how to make a commitment, if a decision must be made. If an arguer’s position is open to fair criticism of internal inconsistency, that could be a good reason for anyone to withhold acceptance of the arguer’s conclusion.

In short, sometimes arguing against an opponent in argument by using his own concessions against his argument can be fair and reasonable, within limits. Such an argument may show that the arguer’s position is inconsistent, and may thereby show that the arguer is not a credible advocate of the conclusion he purports to advance. However, an argument against the person does not show that his conclusion is necessarily false, in itself. At best, it shows that the position backing up the argument is open to challenge. In example 6.10, George’s conclusion that private companies should be allowed to compete with the Post Office might, for all we know, be true. George may even be able to give some good reasons for it that anyone, even an anti-communist, would wish to take into account. Even so, Bob’s criticism is a reasonable argument against the person in reply if it shows that this conclusion does not square with George’s own political philosophy. That may be a good criticism, but of course it does not necessarily imply that George’s conclusion is false. To so argue would be an incorrect use of the argument against the person. In short then, an argument against the person can sometimes be a reasonable criticism, but only within carefully drawn limits.

Traditionally, the argument against the person, or so-called ad hominem argument has been called a fallacy in many textbooks.1 However, it is more useful to make the following distinctions which allow for the argument against the person to be a reasonable criticism in some cases and an inadequately reasoned or supported criticism in other cases.2 A personal attack (personal allegation) is said to have been advanced in argument where one arguer uses some personal allegations relative to the motives, personal circumstances, personal actions, and so forth, as a basis to criticize an opponent’s argument. This form ofattack can have three forms, the direct (abusive) personal attack, the circumstantial personal attack, and the attack on an arguer’s impartiality. Such an attack becomes a personal criticism of an argument where evidence is given by the arguer to back up his personal attack on the argument criticized.

The evidence required for this criticism must fulfill various requirements if the criticism is to be reasonable in a given case. The more subtle and complex type of personal attack is the circumstantial type of instance, where care is needed to identify the nature of the alleged circumstantial inconsistency.

A circumstantial attack against the person occurs where an arguer questions the consistency of another arguer’s position. A circumstantial criticism is advanced where the questioning arguer (1) pins down a specific set of propositions and gives some evidence that the other arguer is committed to these propositions as part ofhis argument or position, and (2) gives some reason to show that there is a danger ofinconsistency, either circumstantial or logical, in these propositions. A circumstantial refutation occurs where a circumstantial criticism is successfully backed up by showing that the set of propositions in question is part of the other arguer’s set of commitments, and does imply a logical contradiction by valid arguments. Various forms of error occur in a personal attack when the direct personal attack or circumstantial criticism is inadequately supported, and therefore fails either as a reasonable criticism or as a successful refutation of the argument in question. There are several specific types of failures, and we turn to these different types of error and shortcoming in the next section.

As a form of criticism, argument against the person has the effect of challenging an arguer’s position and thereby putting that arguer’s case on the defensive. All controversial argument is really a dialogue, and there are always two sides to a dialogue. The effect of an ad hominem reply in dialogue is to bounce the ball back into your opponent’s court. However, the ultimate resolution ofan argument against the person as a criticism that is successful, or itself open to criticism, is often highly dependent on the subsequent dialogue that takes place between the critic and the defender of the argument. Thus a good personal criticism may be successful if it opens up the channels ofdialogue in articulating or exploring two opposed positions on a controversial issue.

Some arguments are more open to personal criticism than others. Consider the following argument.

Example 6.11

Skeptic: All arguments are relative to beliefs that can be challenged. Hence no argument is reliable.

This argument is open to the following personal, circumstantial reply to Skeptic: “What about your own argument (example 6.11) above, Skeptic? Is it reliable?” If Skeptic tries to insist that his argument is reliable, he is clearly in danger of personal inconsistency. For he has just maintained that no argument is reliable. How can he consistently make an exception for his own argument without being illogical? On the other hand, if Skeptic concedes that his own argument in example 6.11 is indeed unreliable, he is also in trouble on grounds of circumstantial inconsistency. For can he really be a sincere and competent participant in reasonable dialogue if he is advocating an argument which he knows to be unreliable? Either way, Skeptic is hoist by his own petard.

So some arguments, like example 6.11, are especially vulnerable to the circumstantial argument against the person as a form of criticism. In such cases, the argument against the person is the most reasonable and appropriate type ofcriticism to bring forward. In these cases, the argument against the person can successfully refute the argument. However, in many cases the argument against the person is inherently weaker. It is not a refutation in such cases, but nevertheless it can often be a reasonable form of challenge to an argument, and can successfully shift the burden of proof against it.

1

See Govier (1983) and Walton (1985b).

2

A deeply and carefully reasoned defence of the argument against the person as a kind of criticism that can be reasonable in some contexts of dialogue is given by Johnstone (1978).