The "Straw Man" Fallacy

http://www.criticalthinkeracademy.com.


This is a sample video from a video tutorial course titled "Fallacies", which you can preview and purchase at the link above.

Part 1: Introduction
1.1 What is a fallacy?
1.2 Categorizing fallacies: pros and cons
1.3 The rules of rational argumentation

Part 2: Some Important Content Fallacies
2.1 Ad hominem (abusive)
2.2 Ad hominem (guilt by association)
2.3 Appeal to hypocrisy (tu quoque))
2.4 Appeal to popular belief (or practice)
2.5 Appeal to authority
2.6 False dilemma
2.7 Slippery slope

Part 3: Fallacies that Violate the Rules of Rational Argumentation
3.1 Straw figure
3.2 Red herring
3.3 Begging the question (narrow sense)
3.4 Begging the question (broad sense)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• critical thinking
• logic
• fallacy
• straw man

[AWEF321]

is bringing up the flat earth society or the holocaust deniers in a debate about whether intelligent design/creationism should be thought in schools considered a strawman fallacy.

[PhilosophyFreak]

@AWEF321 Not by itself. It really depends on how these are used. To be guilty of a straw many you first need an argument. The straw man is a distorted misrepresentation of that argument. You commit the straw man fallacy when you criticize the straw man version and claim that you've refuted the original argument. So the devil is in the details, as they say.

[rogerdpack]

if I dislike this does it mean I'm disliking it, or a misrepresentation of it ?

[jumbabrother]

Honestly, I think this could have been explained better. Shit they should have taught us in school.

[Hoobifta]

Yeah, well dig this! A straw man is a person who says the opposite opinion of his friend's argument by agreeing with the same thing.

[rutlandpeter]

This is a straw man representation of the straw man argument. In most cases it is not deployed in a dialog with a stronger argument, but it is used by a sole author to create an argument - for example, a student or academic trying to write a paper will start off by creating a straw man.

[sfetbrandt]

Is being a pompous-ass philosopher and not realizing that language is circuitous or that logic is an oxymoronic human invention a straw-man argument to the notion that logic supposedly has some empirical validity in human discourse?

[CIassicR0CK]

Oh so this is why ron paul is hard to understand... Assholes pulthe straw man on ron

[PBreeze84]

Can you break down ecological fallacy?

[yomeyo99]

Is the use of analogies, to help the other see the argument from a different perspective, considered a type of strawman?

[thebrosnhoes]

adhominem, appeal to emotion, straw man and red herirng in one example. Man it's hard arguing for this one.

[ReignbowSmite]

@AWEF321 Depending how it was phrased, it could have been a slippery slope fallacy. The best argument for this is (ime) is "Only testable, repeatable peer reviewed science should be taught in science class." If you watch 'Judgment Day: Intelligent Design On Trial' I believe a Scientist who supports ID had to admit before the judge that ID is to evolution what astrology is to astronomy. In other words, not science.

No fallacies in that argument :)

[kuunami]

I've actually gotten pretty good at calling people out when they attempt the straw man argument strategy. It's crazy how angry some people get when they realize that you can recognize and avoid a straw man argument.