Ad personam

In his treatise The Art of Being Always Right, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer lists this technique under the title of Stratagem No.

You could call this an argomentum ad personam, and you should distinguish it from the argomentum ad hominem; in fact, while in the latter we attack what the opponent has said or admitted, with the this stratagem we leave the subject in question aside and rail against the opponent with insolence.

In the event that our opponent starts to use this behaviour, we certainly cannot do the same, otherwise it would turn into a fight, a duel or a trial.Ad personam and ad hominem are distinct.

In contrast, an ad personam argument invokes the opponent's inherent identity, which does not involve a conscious decision.

This includes factors such as their familial rank, position in a hierarchy, age, physical characteristics, geographical origin, or even zodiac sign.