Comment by continuational
5 days ago
Calling someone "immature" can be considered an ad hominem attack if it is used as a way to dismiss or undermine their argument without addressing the substance of what they are saying.
5 days ago
Calling someone "immature" can be considered an ad hominem attack if it is used as a way to dismiss or undermine their argument without addressing the substance of what they are saying.
> Calling someone "immature"
That didn't actually happen in this thread, though. A comment was characterized as "immature". That might be insulting, but it's not an ad hominem attack.
Saying "this argument sucks" just isn't attacking an argument by attacking the credibility of the arguer. Using terms that can describe cognitive temperament or ability to directly characterize an argument might seem more ambiguous, but they don't really qualify either, for two reasons:
1. Humans are fallible, so it doesn't take an immature person to make an immature argument; all people are capable of becoming impatient or flippant. (The same is true for characterizations of arguments in terms of intelligence or wisdom, whatever.)
2. More crucially, even if you do read it as implying a personal insult, a direct assertion that an argument, claim, or comment is <insert insulting term here> is inverted from that of an ad hominem attack: the argument itself is asserted to evince the negative trait— rather than the negative trait, having been purportedly established about the person, being used to undermine the argument without any connection asserted between it and the argument other than that both it and the negative trait belong to the arguer.
You might call this, if you think the person saying it fails to show or suggest why the comment in question is "immature" or whatever a baseless insult, but it's not an ad hominem attack because that's just a different rhetorical strategy.
But it's pretty clear that it's more a form of scolding (and maybe even pleading with someone to "step up" in some sense) than something primarily intended to insult. Maybe that's useless, maybe it's needlessly insulting, maybe it involves an unargued assertion, but "ad hominem" just ain't what it is.
--
Fwiw, after writing all that, I kinda regret it even though I stand by the contents. Talk of fallacies here has the problems of being technical and impersonal, and perhaps invites tangents like this.
I said your interpretation was immature, not you.
This is not a mature thing to say: " I eat breakfast while reciting the declaration of independence."