Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:05:58.797Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Does Virtue Epistemology Provide a Better Account of the Ad Hominem Argument? A Reply to Christopher Johnson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2010

Gary Jason*
Affiliation:
California State University, Fullerton

Abstract

Christopher Johnson has put forward in this journal the view that ad hominem reasoning may be more generally reasonable than is allowed by writers such as myself, basing his view on virtue epistemology. I review his account, as well as the standard account, of ad hominem reasoning, and show how the standard account would handle the cases he sketches in defense of his own view. I then give four criticisms of his view generally: the problems of virtue conflict, vagueness, conflation of speech acts, and self-defeating counsel. I then discuss four reasons why the standard account is superior: it better fits legal reality, the account of other fallacies, psychological science, and political reality.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Johnson, Christopher M., ‘Reconsidering the Ad HominemPhilosophy 84 (2009), 251266CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Johnson, op. cit. 252.

3 Hinman, Lawrence, ‘The Case For Ad Hominem Arguments’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 60 (1982), 338345CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Jason, Gary James, ‘Is There A Case For Ad Hominem Arguments?’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 62 (1984), 182185CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Johnson, op. cit., 257.

6 Johnson, op. cit., 263.

7 Jason, Gary, Critical Thinking: Developing an Effective Worldview (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001)Google Scholar. See Chapter 8, sections 1 and 3.

8 Jason, op. cit. Chapter 3.

9 Johnson, op. cit., 253–254.

10 Jason, Critical Thinking, 232–236.

11 Johnson, op. cit., 254, says, ‘When these optimal conditions do not obtain, though, as when we don't have the necessary time or facility to fully determine the correctness of claims, ad hominem considerations can play a relevant role. In such situations they cease to be abusive and become appropriate means of evaluation.’

12 Johnson, op. cit., 257, mid-page.

13 Yaniv, Ilan, ‘The Benefit of Additional Opinions,Current Directions in Psychological Science 13 (2004), 75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Yaniv, op. cit., 76.

15 Johnson, op. cit., 257–258.

16 Johnson, op. cit., 258

17 Johnson, op. cit., 259.

18 Johnson, op. cit., 259.

19 Johnson, op. cit., 259.

20 Johnson, op. cit. 260.

21 Johnson, op. cit. 261

22 Johnson, op. cit. 262.

23 Johnson, op. cit. 262.

24 Johnson, op. cit., 251.

25 Johnson, op. cit., 253.

26 Smith, BradleyIn Defense of Political Anonymity’, City Journal 20 (2010)Google Scholar.

27 Cialdini, Robert B., Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (New York: Morrow, 1993)Google Scholar.