argumentizer

[Eng. argumentiz (e); -er.] IMG:content-0739.png:[blocks in formation] argumentum à prior i. [Á PRIORI.] Argumentum ad baculum. (Humorously.) An appeal to the stick, as when a schoolmaster renders an argument which has produced only limited conviction among his pupils conclusive, at least to the extent of silencing gainsayers, by the use of the birch. The phrase may be employed also in a vaguer sense for any appeal to physical force; as when a French political party "descends into the streets." argumentum ad hominem. [ Lit. = argument to a, or to the, man.] An argument drawn from an appeal to the man himself; that is, founded on his profe ed principles, his conduct, or the conce ions he has made. St. Paul's argument, in Rom. ii. 17, ., is an argumentum ad hominem . argumentum ad ignorant i am. [ Lit. an argument to ignorance.] An argument in which a too confident disputant is reminded of his ignorance. When John Foster, reasoning against atheism, reminds the man who categorically and dogmatically declares that there is no God, that his personal experience has been limited to what has occurred in one fragment of the earth, and one very brief period of time, and that po ibly, had he traversed the universe and lived through a bygone eternity, he somewhere or at some time might have found proofs of the Divine existence which would have convinced even him, the argument is one ad ignorant i am. argumentum ad verecund i am. [ Lit. an argument to modesty.] An appeal to a person's modesty; as if one were to say to an opponent, "Well, Sir Isaac Newton was of a different opinion; but perhaps you are more competent to judge than he was.'