Editing Straw man (section)

{{Short description|Form of incorrect argument and informal fallacy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File: McKinley Destroys Imperialism Straw Man.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|U.S. president [[William McKinley]] has shot a cannon (labeled McKinley's Letter) that has involved a "straw man" and its constructors ([[Carl Schurz]], [[Oswald Garrison Villard]], [[Richard Olney]]) in a great explosion. Caption: "SMASHED!", ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', 22 September 1900]]
A '''straw man''' fallacy (sometimes written as '''strawman''') is the [[informal fallacy]] of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction.<ref name="Stephen Downes">{{cite web |url=http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton/Teaching/General%20Readings/Logical%20Falllacies.htm#_Toc495459590 |author=Downes, Stephen |title=The Logical Fallacies |access-date=25 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181716/http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton/Teaching/General%20Readings/Logical%20Falllacies.htm#_Toc495459590 |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref> One who engages in this fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man".

The typical straw man argument creates the illusion of having refuted or defeated an opponent's proposition through the covert replacement of it with a different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man") and the subsequent refutation of that false argument ("knock down a straw man"), instead of the opponent's proposition.<ref name="book">{{cite book |last=Pirie |first=Madsen |author-link=Madsen Pirie |title=How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic |year=2007 |publisher=[[Continuum International Publishing Group]] |location=UK |isbn=978-0-8264-9894-6 |pages=155–157 }}</ref><ref name="files">{{cite web |url=http://www.fallacyfiles.org/strawman.html |title=The Straw Man Fallacy |work=fallacyfiles.org |access-date=12 October 2007 }}</ref> Straw man arguments have been used throughout history in [[polemic|polemical debate]], particularly regarding highly charged emotional subjects.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Demir |first1=Yeliz |title=Derailment of strategic maneuvering in a multi-participant TV debate: The fallacy of [[ignoratio elenchi]]|journal=Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi |date=2018 |volume=15 |issue=1 |page=25–58}}</ref>

Straw man tactics in the United Kingdom may also be known as an [[Aunt Sally#Language|Aunt Sally]], after a pub game of the same name, where patrons throw sticks or battens at a post to knock off a [[Glossary of cue sports terms#skittle|skittle]] balanced on top.<ref name="Lindley2006">{{Cite book |last=Lindley |first=Dennis V.|author-link=Dennis Lindley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z0ArJ_CDnssC&pg=PA80 |title=Understanding Uncertainty |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-470-04383-7 |page=80|access-date=25 February 2016}}</ref><ref name="Sparkes1991">{{cite book|author=A. W. Sparkes|title=Talking Philosophy: A Wordbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NkOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA104|year=1991|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-0-415-04223-9|page=104|access-date=25 February 2016}}</ref>