Commentary on the ad hominem fallacy.

Image source

"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it."

Oscar Wilde

Let's start by clarifying, the title should have been about the ad hominem argument, but in essence it is a kind of fallacy (a false argument), so I preferred to play with the words a bit and title the way I have. done. With that cleared up for meticulous readers, we can move on.

In recent times, a common mistake that I have even fallen into with some frequency has caught my attention, is that of disqualifying an idea or a message due to the lack of integrity or the bad reputation of the person communicating the news. A recent event gave me reason to remember that "a truth is a truth even if the devil tells it" ... well, that is an old saying that is not very popular, but it is terribly true.

So then, if we dislike a person or have a history that bothers us to some extent, we always run the risk that any idea they put out, even a good one, may be rejected out of hand, even before we have seriously evaluated whether the idea has some value or not.

This behavior of immediately censoring an idea due to the antipathy that the author causes us is unfortunately something very human and frequent, so if you meet someone you really can't stand, but who at some point offers you an idea, well, take a deep breath , get away from things a bit and reflect more seriously, because you must make sure that if you reject the idea it must be because you really do not find it useful and it is not because your dislike of the person is blinding you and takes away a possibility of do something right or have a profit derived from such an idea.

Much more than a browser. Enjoy private, secure and fast browsing with Brave