Ad Personam Fallacy
Also known as: Argument Ad Personam, Personal Discrediting Fallacy
Formulated by Arthur Schopenhauer (1831)
Definition
A more directly personal variant of the ad hominem fallacy: the speaker is discredited outright instead of the substance of what they said ever being addressed. Where ad hominem attacks an opponent's position indirectly, for instance by pointing to an inconsistency between their stated values and their past actions, ad personam abandons the argument entirely and attacks an inherent trait of the person, their appearance, age, origin, or background, that has nothing to do with the point being debated. Arthur Schopenhauer documented the technique in The Art of Being Right (1831) as "Stratagem No. 38": the last resort when a debater, facing defeat, drops the subject matter to rail against the opponent directly.