If you’ve been in any online argument you have almost certainly encountered this fallacy. The straw man is where someone takes your argument, and mischaracterises it as a much more extreme and less reasonable position than you actually stated.
This is when someone gives an argument that we might want to fight climate change only for the other person to throw up their hands and say “so you want us to stop using all plastics? Just overnight?”. Of course, this is obviously not what they meant. But it is easy to have an argument where no one is actually addressing their opponent’s position, and instead spend all their time hacking at straw men.
So the next time you are arguing with someone, ask yourself if you are being charitable to their position, or are you strawmanning what they are saying. You can check whether you understand what they are saying by repeating your understanding of it back to them and asking whether that was what they meant.
#cambridgeuniversity #student #logic #philosophy #fallacy
