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Ad hominem is a Latin phrase meaning "at the man."
Fallacies in this family all share the characteristic that they concern themselves with
the person responsible for the argument, rather than the argument itself. They falsely
assume that characteristics of the person responsible for an argument imply that the
argument itself must have certain characteristics, or that the characteristics of the
person responsible for the argument are relevant to the acceptability of the argument
itself. Another common name for this type of fallacy is genetic fallacy,
since it attacks the source or "genesis" of the argument rather than the
argument itself. |