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fandomhigh2010-06-24 02:16 pm
steel-not-glass.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2010-06-24 02:16 pm
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Logical Fallacies, Thursday, Period 3
"Welcome to our last class of the term," Cindy greeted. "It's been a small, short class, but rather fun--even if we did miss out on bad movie bingo. My apologies, Peter, for not being better prepared." She gave the four of them a grin and continued.
"One more lesson for today, and then a discussion," she said, leaning against the side of her desk. Next to her was a large, white bakery bag. "Today, we're covering the straw man fallacy, which is a convenient way to try to win an argument without actually having to address your opponent's points. A straw man is a caricature of an argument--it differs from a parody, in that audience is not meant to regard the exaggeration and distortion as funny and an an invalid portrayal of a real point of view; the straw man is intended to be taken seriously and solely for the purpose of making the original argument easier to mock and refute."
"Rather than making the attempt to properly argue against the original point, the creator of the straw man fallacy will come up with a flawed, superficially-similar position and argue against that. For example, the straw man for arguing that safer-sex procedure should be taught in schools might be suggesting that teachers are encouraging children or have premarital sex. Another option is painting all opponents of your stance in a negative light: describing all atheists as having an agenda to outlaw religion and murder the faithful and all people of faith as howling zealots enslaved to dogma."
Cindy reached into the bakery bag and pulled out a cake, along with napkins, paper plates, and plasticware. "Let's settle in with some cake and discuss, okay?"
[OCD is up! Have at!]
"One more lesson for today, and then a discussion," she said, leaning against the side of her desk. Next to her was a large, white bakery bag. "Today, we're covering the straw man fallacy, which is a convenient way to try to win an argument without actually having to address your opponent's points. A straw man is a caricature of an argument--it differs from a parody, in that audience is not meant to regard the exaggeration and distortion as funny and an an invalid portrayal of a real point of view; the straw man is intended to be taken seriously and solely for the purpose of making the original argument easier to mock and refute."
"Rather than making the attempt to properly argue against the original point, the creator of the straw man fallacy will come up with a flawed, superficially-similar position and argue against that. For example, the straw man for arguing that safer-sex procedure should be taught in schools might be suggesting that teachers are encouraging children or have premarital sex. Another option is painting all opponents of your stance in a negative light: describing all atheists as having an agenda to outlaw religion and murder the faithful and all people of faith as howling zealots enslaved to dogma."
Cindy reached into the bakery bag and pulled out a cake, along with napkins, paper plates, and plasticware. "Let's settle in with some cake and discuss, okay?"
[OCD is up! Have at!]
Re: Talk to the TA
Hinata quietly thought about the class and enjoyed her cake.