Straw Man Fallacy - Free Essay Example

“Straw man fallacy is the misinterpretation of a person’s view so he or she can be more easily attacked or dismissed” (Vaughn, 86). The straw man fallacy is considered different from disagreeing with someone else's opinion. It is regarded as a weak man's natural way to tackle in an argument. Someone who takes one's point of argument, changes it or exaggerates it in some exciting way and then uses the same point though distorted to attract the person as it was the real person's first claim. Disagreement, someone has a different opinion and doesn't want to be associated with someone else ideas (Vaughn, 87). According to Vaughn, the mistake with the straw man misconception is that someone misinterprets someone else’s view and uses it to attack him or her.

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During a class debate on causes of climate change, someone on the proposing side’s gives and his view and says that “I think pollution from the human is one of the main causes of climate change. When Mr Fallacy came to the podium to debate, he asked the first speaker. You think humans are directly accountable for life-threatening climate, like storms, and have instigated the famine in the southwestern U.S? if you mean so; maybe we need to go to the southwest and do a "rain dance." This made the first speaker so confused since that was not what he meant, and the other speaker has used the wrongly interpreted information to bust him.

The example is an excellent illustration of straw man fallacy, and it clearly explains how Mr Fallacy uses the first speaker's view to distort him completely. The example is a straw man fallacy since the same opinion to attract the speaker. The appeal to the person, a person, completely rejects the other person's view since it originates from a specific person and not because the light is false or dubious. In this case, Mr Fallacy does not disagree with the idea; he misinterpreted the concept and used it to distort the speaker. He completely exaggerated the point if the speaker and even at the end of it all make fun out of it when he says that if the human is the one responsible maybe they should go the southwest and perform a rain dance.

When Mr Fallacy was speaking, he made sure that he used the keywords used by the first speaker to make sure that he did not change the topic, and at the end of it all, he demonstrated a different and more exaggerated view out of the first point. The first speaker just said that people have contributed to pollution. Mr Fallacy goes ahead to ask him if he means that people are directly causing the drought and the hurricane in the region a different idea from the one the first speaker tried to explain.

Most of the time, people use straw man fallacy intention, and sometimes others misinterpret the information. Therefore it is essential to be careful when giving the point to avoid such a situation since it is a simple thing that can happen at any time. In the example above, you notice that Mr Fallacy used the first speaker's opinion to distort him completely. When giving out points, make sure that you're careful to avoid even the accidental strawman fallacy. With the example, students can identify and differentiate between disagreement, straw man fallacy, and the appeal to the person. The example has given the main points that Mr Fallacy uses to attract his colleague, giving the student a clear picture of what people mostly look for when they want to attack you using the straw man fallacy.

Work Cited

Aikin, Scott F., and John Casey. "Straw men, weak men, and hollow men." Argumentation 25.1 (2011): 87-105. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226541299_Straw_Men_Weak_Men_and_Hollow_Men.

Vaughn, Lewis. "The power of critical thinking: Effective reasoning about ordinary and extraordinary claims." (2008). https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Sq80DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA168&dq=straw%20man%20fallacy&pg