Ad Hominem Fallacy

I went back to West Malaysia to attend a meeting in KL. It was a hectic and long day. Instead of staying in the hotel, I decide to bunk in for the night at my sister's place in Damansara so that we can catch up on lost times. She is 8 years older than me and a housewife with 2 teenage daughters. Her husband is working in overseas most of the time.

So everything went well initially with the evening spent chatting with laughters at her home and eating at a nearby restaurant for dinner with her 2 kids. However, little did I know that a "storm" was coming to wreak havoc and spoil the night. It all started with us talking about the latest interesting movies and it then went on to cinemas, pirated dvds and taa-daa...she exclaimed that her 2 original copy of dvds were missing and she has been searching high and low for the past 3 months. She said that she suspected one of her daughter's school friend who went to the house for sleepover and must have taken the dvds without telling. I asked her for the title and she said "Karei Naru Ichizoku" and "Kankyouku Tairiku" (both are very popular Japanese drama starring Takuya Kimura). Then she continued telling me of why she suspected the girl who stayed at their place and while she kept grumbling with full of emotions, I already knew that it was going to be a scene because I realised that these two Japanese drama titles were quite familiar and it gradually dawned on me that I have seen it somewhere since I did some spring cleaning in my room in Sibu recently. I had no choice but to pause her and reveal that I must have been the one who took the dvds.

Well, I visited her few months back and she passed to me some dvds to bring back to Sibu to watch whenever I'm alone as the internet here SUCKS big time. So, when I took the stack of dvds off the living room table , I actually picked up 2 other dvds that were left on the carpet flooring by thinking that my sister could have left those for me too. Honestly, all those dvds had become white elephants and remained hidden in my room's wardrobe drawer as I didn't have time to watch any of them. The worse part was that my sister had once smsed to ask me whether the 2 titles were with me but then I confidently replied "No" (I took it for granted and assumed that this was merely a small matter and never even bothered to check on it.).

However, she became furious when I told her about the facts and subsequently we quarrelled.

She shouted, "Why you always take people's things without telling? If you wanted it you should have told me. You are such a liar for not telling me when I asked you last time"

I replied back in an agitated manner, "What you mean I'm a liar! I really didn't check it and I just replied that it was not with me. Yes it's my fault I should have checked it. But you shouldn't call people liar. Sometimes you also mistakenly took my eyeliner or lipstick and when I asked you, you sincerely thought that it was yours; but after that you realised yours was misplaced somewhere else, so I can call you a liar then!

 *******************************************************************************

Based on the arguments above

1. My sister was using the Ad Hominem Abusive as she attacked my character by saying that I am a liar.

2. On the other hand, when I fought back and reminded her about the stuffs she took from me and on top of that, I indicated that she could also be a liar then, I was attacking her by using Tu Quoque.

Anyway just fyi, we patched back already the next day itself :)

In any good and strong argument, we need to always AVOID having Vagueness in our premise and conclusion whereby the message sent to the other party should be Clear and Complete.

For example :-

A police officer asked an eyewitness: "Since you witnessed the robbery and you saw the robber face to face, could you please describe him for me?"

 

The eyewitness replied: "Well, he was quite tall, kinda short and, you know, dark but not too dark skinned - Let me think, and errrr, He was a person."

What the....??? The eyewitness is clearly missing the STANDARD here...

VALID Argument

Either Lee Chong Wei or Lin Dan will win the ALL England Finals.
Lin Dan lost.
Therefore Lee Chong Wei won.

* The word "Either" has already indicated that only one can win. So if Lin Dan lost, it meant Chong Wei won.

INVALID Argument
All Birds Sing.
Tweetie Sings.
Therefore Tweetie is a Bird.

* Even though the premises are true, but bear in mind that humans sing too. Hence it is not impossible that for the conclusion to be false.

This is taken from the Dilbert Comic Strip.

The one standing is Ratbert while the one sitting on the pillow is Dogbert.

Let's just assume the 2 characters are H-U-M-A-N.

While it is true that "Good Wine has to Age Before it is Perfect" due to the time needed for the fermentation process to take place. However, will our Wisdom become perfect too as we get older? There is a saying - People mellow with age. Hence, it can be said that we become wiser due to our experiences in life over the years. But will it be perfect? Definitely not as mistakes are bound to be committed. Nobody is perfect!

So the comparison in this Analogy is INVALID. 

GENERALISATION

M'sians enjoy sex more than S'poreans do  

Malaysians are more satisfied in bed compared to their neighbours across the Causeway.

A Durex Sexual Well-Being Global Survey found that Malaysians were also doing well in making their partners happy, with 89% of men and 81% of women saying their partners were good at giving them sexual pleasure.

All was not well in Singapore, according to the survey, with only 54% of men and 62% of women saying their partners were giving them pleasurable sex.

“Singapore is amongst the countries in Asia having the second lowest scores in this area,” Durex said in a statement yesterday.

Nine out of 10 Malaysian women (89%) agreed that sex brought them emotionally closer to their partners.

“The pleasant surprise is that Malaysian men seem to be succeeding in getting in touch with their softer sides, as 88% of Malaysian women say they feel loved during sex,” said Durex.

Reckitt Benckiser Malaysia and Singapore marketing director Nikhilesh Kalra said sexual well-being was a balance of physical, emotional and sociological factors.

The survey, commissioned by Durex, was conducted to gain global consumer insights into sexual attitudes and behaviours.

It was conducted in 36 countries with a total of 29,003 people aged 18 and above between Sept 6 and Oct 3 last year.

The Malaysian results have a base of 506 participants: 241 men and 265 women.

http://www.dailychilli.com/news/16723-malaysians-enjoy-sex-more-than-sporeans

        

      VS

Based on the World Bank's statistics :-

Malaysia's Population = 28.4 million

Singapore's Population = 5 million 

This survey's Generalisation is NOT GOOD.

There are 28.4 million of people in Malaysia and yet the sample size was only based on 506 participants (241 men and 265 women). A good generalisation would need at least 30% from the number of population but the Durex survey's sampling does not even have 1%. The figures are so small that it does not justify the generalisation and the conclusion.

This is a classic tale of Assumption. As a critical thinker, we should always open our ears and make sure that we have understood the message correctly before jumping into conclusion.

So this poor guy's assumption which serves as the premise by sharing his knowledge about having a nose job to that lady with the crooked nose has indeed made it awkward and uncomfortable for everyone.

The look on his face....Priceless!!!

The SIX THINKING HATS

Have you ever attended a meeting and you dread the whole duration of being in there because the entire session was just not going anywhere?

Have you ever experienced being in one where some members were just sitting down wondering what's going on while some were busy contributing ideas and feedbacks but no one seemed to bother much about what they are saying?

Well I have been to many kinds of meetings and having to chair one recently was pretty intimidating for me as I had my big boss as the observer sitting at the back silently monitoring the situation and outcome of the 2-hour session. In a nutshell, he was just there to judge me and to check out my capabilities.

What I was thankful about was that my distance learning course has sort of helped me a little on how to manage certain aspects of my job and since I am learning Critical Thinking for this semester, one topic that I particularly like would be the 6 Thinking Hats.

Six Thinking Hats???



The Six Thinking Hats was introduced by Edward De Bono who is a renowned expert on creative and critical thinking. It is a very useful tool to be applied especially during a rigorous meeting.

The special agenda for this ad hoc meeting was titled as "How to Increase Sales by 120% within the Next 6 Months". Well, 120% was indeed a far-fetched figure or some might put it as "Mission Impossible!!!"

Anyway, I suggested to all the members in using a new method to conduct the meeting. I told them that it was actually very simple. Instead of having some to dominate in generating ideas during the meeting; some to kill off the ideas by pouring cold water; some whose mind would be wondering somewhere else while some who might declare a pillow as their best friend - we would instead get EVERYONE involved by using the invincible 6 different colors of hats at certain juncture. Each hat color represents a distinct type of  thought.

 



=   Objective (Pure and Neutral) Eg. Facts and Figures

=   Creative (Growth and Fertile) Eg. Generating of Ideas

=   Process (Far and Wide) Eg. Organizing and Control

=   Intuitive (Rage and Emotions) Eg. Feelings and Hunches

=   Negative (Gloomy and Serious) Eg. Weaknesses and Objections

=   Positive (Sunny and Bright) Eg. Visions and Dreams

Hence when you are asked to put on the Green Hat, you should only be thinking of any ideas that come to your mind without even a hint of negativity. Share your ideas generously. When it's time to put on your Yellow Hat, the positive aspects of the idea would be discussed thoroughly. However when it involves wearing the Black Hat, we will then focus on what and why the idea is not our cup of tea.

By being asked to put on a different color of Hat each time, we are actually consciously conditioning our mind by stimulating the brain to work on the required information needed. This enables the meeting process to run smoothly in an organized manner with the high possibility of acquiring a viable end result.  

So apart from the usual SWOT analysis that is often incorporated into meetings so as to address certain topics, imparting my knowledge by getting all and sundry to experiment with the 6 Thinking Hats was an eye-opener for everyone (including my boss!) and was fun too at the same time. Everyone had a cheerful smile at the closing note. One cheeky fellow even stood up by giving me a salute in a jokingly manner while he said "Hats off to you, lady boss!"