Guilt By Association
By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK There was a time when serious students in college or high school would be familiar with the terms “arguing ad hominem” and the “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy. I don’t know why our schools no longer introduce our young people to these errors in logic. Perhaps it is because they are in Latin and are thought to be outdated for that reason. Or it could be that our educators have concluded that these concepts can be taught without using the Latin terminology. There is something to the latter proposition. Informed younger Americans are aware that it is a mistake to conclude that an argument is erroneous simply because the person advancing it is a villain…Continue Reading