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Senior Master Sergeant

What Fallacy is this

Person A commits an indiscretion. When called on the indiscretion, person A excuses his action because person B did the same.

 

asked on Tuesday, Jul 28, 2020 12:52:37 PM by Senior Master Sergeant

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Roughly 95% of Americans don’t appear to have an ethical problem with animals being killed for food, yet all of us would have a serious problem with humans being killed for food. What does an animal lack that a human has that justifies killing the animal for food but not the human?

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Bo Bennett, PhD
3

Sounds like the Ad Hominem (Tu quoque) .
answered on Tuesday, Jul 28, 2020 12:59:01 PM by Bo Bennett, PhD

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Rationalissimo
0

Logical form:

Person A did X.

X is considered wrong.

X is not wrong in this case because person B also did X.

If something is wrong, then it's...wrong. Another person doing it does not alter the nature of the action itself; it simply means that two people have now committed wrong. So if it was wrong when person B did it, it is wrong when person A does it too.

This is the logical fallacy of Ad Hominem (Tu quoque); a common fallacy of relevance used to change the conversation from one's wrongdoing to another's wrongdoing.
answered on Tuesday, Jul 28, 2020 05:01:03 PM by Rationalissimo

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