Commenting at Orac's post, Yes, there really are people who don't accept the germ theory of disease, the blogger Bronze Dog wrote a helpful mnemonic example:
There's a big difference between an insult and an ad hominem fallacy. The former is a conclusion independent of the topic of discussion. The latter is an integral premise used to form an invalid conclusion about the primary topic. There's a difference between integral and independent....
Insult: "You're an idiot because you used fallacies X, Y, and Z in this discussion about germ theory."
Ad Hominem Fallacy: "You're an idiot, therefore we can conclude A, B, and C about germ theory based on you being an idiot."
Now that I can remember.
And Bronze Dog promises to get back to blogging regularly. He (or she) had better, 'cause I've subscribed to the blog feed. You should too.
this post is interesting to read,nice blog
Posted by: rahul | Monday, November 15, 2010 at 12:47 AM