From Bronze Dog, A Clear Example of Insult vs. Ad Hominem Argument

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.

Comments

[rahul]

this post is interesting to read,nice blog