Straw man
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- This article is about the logical fallacy. For other uses, see Straw man (disambiguation).
A straw man, or straw person, argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that position to the opponent. A straw-man argument can be a successful rhetorical technique (that is, it may succeed in persuading people) but it is in fact misleading, because the opponent's actual argument has not been refuted.
Its name is derived from the practice of using straw men in combat training. In such training, a scarecrow is made in the image of the enemy with the single intent of attacking it. [1] It is occasionally called a straw dog fallacy [2] or a scarecrow argument.
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[edit] Setup of a straw man
One can set up a straw man in the following ways:
- Present a misrepresentation of the opponent's position, refute it, and pretend that the opponent's actual position has been refuted.
- Quote an opponent's words "out of context" -- i.e., choose quotations that are not representative of the opponent's actual intentions (see contextomy)
- Present someone who defends a position poorly as the defender, refute that person's arguments, and pretend that every upholder of that position, and thus the position itself, has been defeated.
- Invent a fictitious persona with actions or beliefs that are criticized, and pretend that the person represents a group of whom the speaker is critical.
Some logic textbooks define the straw man fallacy only as a misrepresented argument. It is now common, however, to use the term to refer to all of these tactics. The straw-man technique is also used as a form of media manipulation.
However, carefully presenting and refuting a weakened form of an opponent's argument is not always itself a fallacy. Instead, it restricts the scope of the opponent's argument, either to where the argument is no longer relevant or as a step of a proof by exhaustion.
[edit] Examples
An example of such an argument could be:
- Person A: I don't think children should run into the busy streets.
- Person B: I think that it would be foolish to lock up children all day with no fresh air.
By insinuating that Person A's argument is far more draconian than it is, Person B has side-stepped the issue.
[edit] Alternative gender usage
In recent years, some writers have used the term straw person as a gender-neutral replacement for straw man. Straw woman has also been used when the subject of easy refutation is a woman. [3]
[edit] References
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
- ^ Informal Fallacies. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
- ^ The Maven's Word of the Day. Random House (June 11, 1997). Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
[edit] See also
- Devil's Advocate, another device used in discussions
- Contextomy (i.e., quoting out of context)
[edit] External links
- Examples of False Positioning (Humbug! Online)
