Bulverism

Bulverism is a rhetorical fallacy that combines circular reasoning, the genetic fallacy, ad hominem and presumption or condescension. The Bulverist assumes that a speaker's argument is false or invalid and then explains why the speaker made that argument (even if said argument is actually correct) by attacking the speaker or the speaker's motive.

Similar to Antony Flew's "subject/motive shift", Bulverism is a fallacy of irrelevance—one accuses an argument of being wrong based solely on the arguer's identity or motive (real or presumed), but these are ultimately irrelevant to the argument's factual validity or truth.

The term Bulverism was coined by C. S. Lewis after an imaginary character to poke fun at a serious error in thinking that, he alleged, frequently occurred in a variety of religious, political, and philosophical debates.

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