Posted on 09/21/2011 7:42:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
Exactly
How about discussing the article instead of the author. *Eye roll*
Roll them eyes. LMAO
The apparent Naivete’ of the author IS a part of the article.
Perhaps because the article is pap.
Once upon a time I was a Philosophy major. I wrote a final paper critically analyzing Cartesian Philosophy. I addressed Descartes' assumptions, arguments, and conclusions point-by-point. I made it abundantly clear that nothing of what he argued was logical or true. That it was not philosophy at all, but mere sophistry -- and sophistry that, if put into practice, would be highly immoral as well.
After nicely wrapping up a logical and coherent debunking of Descartes' philosophy without resort to any fallacy of logic, I characterized his arguments as "bullshit" -- which I had just written 15 pages showing that they indeed WERE.
Then, as my concluding sentence, I wrote that because the "philosophy" amounted to "bullshit"; and because said "philosophy" was created and described by Descartes; Rene Descartes was, therefore, a "bullshit artist".
My professor gave me a grade of "D" on the paper because I had used an ad hominem argument.
Was she right in doing so?
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