Ad Hominem Fallacy
Categories: Financial Theory
A fallacy where a person is credited or discredited on the basis of someone’s personal opinion, rather than looking at the statement’s merit.
In other words, “I don’t like this person, so everything he says is garbage” or “I love this person and everything she says is the bee's knees." Does this line of reasoning sound familiar? While it’s easy to let emotions cloud judgment, sometimes...just sometimes…a well-liked person says something that’s complete hogwash, and a disliked person says something worthy of Plato or Einstein.
Does this mean that we should consider every statement of every person we come across? That would be a resounding “no-way.” An individual who just consumed a significant amount of mind-altering chemicals and is rambling on about solving the world’s problems through ancient rituals is likely not something that should be taken as anything other than pure entertainment (or cause for concern). At least wait until the person is sober and see if he/she remembers it. What’s important is to set aside personal biases and consider the virtue of what is actually being said or read.
