Last week was a family gathering. The more family that gathers, the more interesting the conversations can get. It was very interesting when one of my family members explained that if he ever became convinced that Calvinism was right, he'd join the Ku Klux Klan because they were the same thing.
I found it to be a wonderful "teaching moment." My son and his new wife had both been talking with me about the "strawman" argument. They understood it to simply be a weak argument. I was explaining to them that it was something different. The "strawman" argument substitutes a person's actual position with something that is not an accurate representation, and then explains why that position is wrong. I found, during the initial conversation, that I was having difficulties coming up with illustrations. Then I was given this beautiful example. Calvinism is like the Aryan Nation. People who believe in Election believe that they are special people and everyone else is inferior. That, of course, is so wrong! And my son picked up on that illustration quite well.
The difficulty of the strawman argument is that 1) it is linked in some sense to the real position, and 2) there is a tendency, in defending your real position, to want to defend against the strawman argument. In the example above, my son wanted to explain why Calvinism is not like white racism, but the defenses looked as if he was defending the Ku Klux Klan. The correct answer is, "You're right! That kind of thinking is wrong! Now ... what has one to do with the other?" But when you agree with the opponent that the argument he offered on your behalf is wrong, it appears as if you're agreeing that you are wrong, and that's not right either. And humans, being what we are, are very quick to pick up defenses based on emotion much more quickly than defenses based on reason, so the mere fact that we are being opposed, even if it isn't a valid argument, tends to make us want to "take up arms," so to speak.
Arguments can be tricky things. Most of us, when we hear the word "argument", think of "fight", but this isn't the case. We are indeed called to make a defense of the truth. In so doing, we will be required make arguments. We should do so with care. We should do so with reason. We should make sure that the motivation isn't so much self-defense, but both defense of the truth and concern for those we believe to be mistaken. We need to avoid "talking past" each other where we might be using similar terms without similar meaning. We need to be careful to understand the concerns of the other person so we can properly address those concerns rather than merely our defense. There is a lot that goes into this. Perhaps a good starting place would be prayer.
1 comment:
The wikipedia says of a strawman:
"A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.[1] To "set up a straw man," one describes a position that superficially resembles an opponent's actual view, yet is easier to refute. Then, one attributes that position to the opponent. For example, someone might deliberately overstate the opponent's position.[1] While a straw man argument may work as a rhetorical technique—and succeed in persuading people—it carries little or no real evidential weight, since the opponent's actual argument has not been refuted.[2]"
I have always understood, as stated here, that the strawman must in some ways be 'weak', or at least more easily refuted. But you are quite correct that it also has to be different.
Good post.
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