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Straw man

Misrepresenting a position as weaker or more extreme so it is easier to attack.

Published 04 August 2026Updated 04 August 2026

A straw-man argument replaces the original position with a distorted version and then refutes the distortion. State the strongest reasonable version of the position, confirm that its advocate would accept it, and address that version directly.

Sources

Fallacies (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy / 2024 / Website

Canonical philosophical treatment of fallacy types.