Scheme as a virtual machine?

Raffael Cavallaro raffaelcavallaro at pas.despam.s.il.vous.plait.mac.com
Tue Nov 23 10:34:22 EST 2010


On 2010-11-23 10:08:12 -0500, Keith H Duggar said:

> There is a well-known name for such illogical reasoning: ad hominem.

You don't understand ad hominem:

"The ad hominem is a classic logical fallacy,[2] but it is not always 
fallacious. For in some instances, questions of personal conduct, 
character, motives, etc., are legitimate and relevant to the issue.[3]"

Source: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem>

Sometimes the person's conduct and motives *are relevant* to the point 
under discussion. Financial conflict of interest is a perfect example 
where it *is* legitimate and relevant to explore a person's motives and 
conduct outside of the debate.

In this case, JH's conduct outside of the debate (i.e., the fact that 
he earns his living by selling tools and training for a particular set 
of languages) and his motives (i.e., he is therefore financially 
motivated to present these languages in the best possible light and to 
trash-talk other languages), render his arguments in the debate 
inherently suspect.

warmest regards,

Ralph

-- 
Raffael Cavallaro




More information about the Python-list mailing list