Tu quoque

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Efn is a discussion technique that intends to discredit the opponent's argument by attacking the opponent's own personal behavior and actions as being inconsistent with their argument, so that the opponent appears hypocritical. This specious reasoning is a special type of Template:Em attack. The Template:Em cites John Cooke's 1614 stage play Template:Em as the earliest known use of the term in the English language.

Form and explanation

The (fallacious) Template:Em argument follows the template (i.e. pattern):

1. Person A claims that a statement Template:Mvar is true.
2. Person B asserts that A's actions or past claims are inconsistent with the truth of claim Template:Mvar.
3. Therefore, Template:Mvar is false.

For example:

1. Person A: "Smoking is associated with chronic health disorders. You shouldn't smoke."
2. Person B: "But you smoke yourself. So much for your argument!"

Person A makes a statement, and Person B reasons that because Person A is being hypocritical, their statement is false.

Similar concepts

A similar concept in politics is that of whataboutism; raising a counteraccusation, often in the form of a larger but unrelated issue. In the Soviet Union in the 1930s, the phrase "and you are lynching Negroes" was often raised against the United States.

See also

• Accusation in a mirror
• Clean hands
• False equivalence
• In pari delicto
• List of fallacies
• List of Latin phrases
• Matthew 7:5
• People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones
• Psychological projection
• The pot calling the kettle black
• Two wrongs don't make a right
• Victor's justice

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External links

• Tu quoque fallacy – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy