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PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.
'If you cannot attack the argument, attack the arguer.' Pirie (2006)(2015: 122). The author states that an insult in itself is not fallacious, (122) but ad hominem is used in a way to attempt to undermine an opponent's argument. (122).
So, therefore, in my opinion, someone could be rightly and justly called a 'jerk' because he/she is acting in such a negative way in an argument and this would not be the use of the fallacious. A fallacy being the use of poor and invalid reasoning; as well it is the use of an invalid structure of argument.
But if someone is called a 'jerk' in an attempt to undermine the opponent's argument then it is fallacious.
The argument is not treated by its merit. (122).
Blackburn explains that ad hominem is an attempt to argue against a person via personal attack, it is less commonly used by praising a person, or it may or may not be used by forceful attacks against a person's position but they do not advance matters intellectually against a person's beliefs and views. Blackburn (1996: 24).
Douglas Walton writes that argumentation ad hominem is an argument against the man. It is a personal attack against an arguer to refute the argument. In the abusive form the character of the arguer is attacked. These arguments are often used to attack an opponent unfairly. Walton (1996: 374).
BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.
WALTON, DOUGLAS (1996) ‘Informal Fallacy’, in Robert Audi, (ed), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
