Definition:
A type of ad hominem argument in which a person turns a charge back on his or her accuser: a logical fallacy.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "you too"Examples and Observations:
- "It is clear that a tu quoque response to an accusation can never refute the accusation. Consider the following:
Wilma: You cheated on your income tax. Don't you realize that's wrong?
Walter may be correct in his counter-accusation, but that does not show that Wilma's accusation is false."
Walter: Hey, wait a minute. You cheated on your income tax last year. Or have you forgotten about that?
(W. Hughes and J. Lavery, Critical Thinking, Broadview, 2004) - "Recently, we highlighted a British journalist’s story about the underside of Dubai’s startling ascent. Some in Dubai called foul, including one writer who wants to remind Britons that their own country has a dark side. After all, what to think of a country in which one fifth of the population lives in poverty?"
("Dubai’s Rebuttal," The New York Times, April 15, 2009) - "Of all human instincts, not even the urge to say 'I told you so' is stronger than the response called tu quoque: 'Look who's talking.' To judge from children, it is innate ('Cathy says you took her chocolate,' 'Yes but she stole my doll'), and we don't grow out of it . . ..
"France has led calls for pressure to be put on the Burmese junta at the security council and through the EU, where foreign ministers discussed the issue yesterday. As part of the push it has tried to enlist a recalcitrant Russia which, conscious perhaps of Chechnya, has no great wish to be seen criticising anyone else's internal affairs. Hence a Russian minister's response that the next time there were riots in France he would refer the matter to the UN.
"This reply was at once childish, irrelevant, and probably very gratifying."
(Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Guardian, Oct. 16, 2007)
Pronunciation: tu-KWO-kwee
Also Known As: the two wrongs fallacy, the pot calling the kettle black
