<P> Ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"), short for argumentum ad hominem, is a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself . </P> <P> However, its original meaning was an argument "calculated to appeal to the person addressed more than to impartial reason". </P> <P> Fallacious ad hominem reasoning is categorized as an informal fallacy, more precisely as a genetic fallacy, a subcategory of fallacies of irrelevance . </P> <P> Ad hominem tu quoque (literally: "You also") refers to a claim that the source making the argument has spoken or acted in a way inconsistent with the argument . In particular, if Source A criticizes the actions of Source B, a tu quoque response is that Source A has acted in the same way . This argument is false because it does not disprove the premise; if the premise is true then Source A may be a hypocrite, but this does not make the statement less credible from a logical perspective . Indeed, Source A may be in a position to provide personal testimony to support the argument . </P>

What is the fallacy of the argumentum ad hominem