A philosopher I know told me that once, when he was explaining his views on a contested matter to a group of his peers, he was met with this objection: “But that sounds like Stanley Fish.” I would bet that no one else in the room had ever met me and that few if any had ever read me. It is just that for many in his corner of the discipline, “Stanley Fish” is a placeholder for ideas you don’t want to be associated with. Saying of someone that he sounds like Stanley Fish is a quick and easy way of refuting him. You might say that it takes the place of an argument or, perhaps, that it is an argument all by itself and one that can be conveniently made in shorthand. (It’s not quite ad hominem; it’s ad hominem backed up by reasons that don’t even have to be given.
Read the rest of Stanley Fish's marvelous article here.
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