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Strawmen and False Dichotomies
I have grown increasingly tired of strawmen being constructed in arguments and false dichotomies being created for the sake of argument. These two logical fallacies are perhaps the most frequently used and I would venture to say the least frequently recognized.
A bit of background:
A strawman is a false portrayal of the opposing sides position that is most often created for easy debunking.A false dichotomy is when a division is created or demostrated that may not be a real division or does not accurately represent other choices. Often called the false dilemma, it poses options which are a subset of the actual options available.
Background and examples of each of these can be found is any elementary logic textbook. I would recommend the following:
Socratic Logic: A Logic Text Using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles by Peter Kreeft
So why have I grown tired of strawmen and false dichotomies? It stems from what these two fallacies are actually doing to the person you are arguing against. In some sense, these fallacies are actually an ad hominem attack disguised.
A strawman fallacy is misrepresenting the case that your opponent has made and typically this is done in order to debunk his or her argument more easily. By misrepresenting the position the opponent is holding, you end up arguing and debunking something other than the position your opponent holds. This is dishonest not only to your opponent but also to the audience.
In much the same way, a false dichotomy can slander the other side by offering alternatives which do not include all alternative available or misrepresent one or more of the alternatives. By this misrepresentation, the audience believes that the person committing this fallacy has some superior choice when, in reality, they have not been intellectually honest and presented the opposing side or sides fairly.
These fallacies bother me more than others because when we commit them we have failed to love our neighbor. We have misrepresented our neighbor and their argument. As such, I am going to particularly careful to avoid these misrepresentations. I want to characterize those who oppose me in a fair and reasonable way.
