Re: Ad Hominem fallacy again

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sun Mar 30 2003 - 11:06:46 MST

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    On Sun, Mar 30, 2003 at 12:09:43PM -0500, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
    >
    > That's it. That's ad hominem. Does anybody really want to argue that these
    > are valid techniques for Extropians trying to determine the truth?

    While they are bad for truth, they are great for "winning" debates.
    Unfortunately many think that it is better to win the debate (since one
    is always right) than get to the truth, which in the long run
    backfires. Not only does one end up with enemies, all possibility of
    reaching a shared understanding of the true state of things have
    vanished in the mists of polarisation.

    A good argument is a good argument, even if it is the devil himself
    that makes it.

    -- 
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
    asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
    GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
    


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