Bulverism is a type of ad hominem rhetorical fallacy that combines circular reasoning and the genetic fallacy with presumption or condescension.

Jan 2, 2025 · Bulverism (uncountable) A rhetorical fallacy in which a speaker assumes that their opponent's argument is wrong, and instead of disproving it, condescendingly explains why their opponent would have come to that conclusion.

Mar 22, 2012 · “Bulverism” C. S. Lewis labeled the slick ploy of avoiding reasoning on a subject by pointing out the reason ones opponent is so silly. Do some criticisms of living-pterosaur investigations qualify as bulverism?

Mar 6, 2021 · Bulverism, coined by C.S. Lewis, is that ubiquitous logical fallacy that consists in the charge, “You’re only saying that because you’re a _____ (man/woman/Democrat/Republican/Christian/atheist/etc.).”

In any case, Freud and Marx are both guilty of rejecting (rather than refuting), name-calling, and logical fallacy, as well as being self-contradictory. If you want to play the Bulverism game, you need to understand that it works both ways. Bulverism is a “truly democratic game.” Lewis says:

Feb 7, 2008 · Some day I am going to write the biography of its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel Bulver, whose destiny was determined at the age of five when he heard his mother say to his father — who had been maintaining that two sides of a triangle were together greater than the third — ‘Oh you say that because you are a man.’ ‘At that moment’, E. Bulver assure...

The rejection of an argument on the basis of the character, motives, or identity of the one making it rather than on its logical soundness or the validity of its assumptions.

Bulverism definition: The fallacy of reason which deals with secondary questions about ideas rather than the primary one, thus avoiding the basic question or evading the issues raised by trains of reasoning.

Bulverism is a type of ad hominem rhetorical fallacy that combines circular reasoning and the genetic fallacy with presumption or condescension. The method of Bulverism is to "assume that your opponent is wrong, and explain his error."

Nov 13, 2022 · Bulverism, in the modern landscape of social media and identity politics, is omnipresent. Progressive commentators, in classical Marxist and Freudian fashion, discredit the person speaking instead of actually tackling the argument.