If you allow your kids to stay up past their bedtime tonight, they’ll stay up late every night. Real Americans eat meat. If you don’t, you’re not American. This healing herb that I grow in my backyard ...

I don’t mean to pick on Dargan Pete again, but his Jan. 15 column is a classic example of the “straw man” logical fallacy. For those readers who didn’t have a secondary school English class unit on ...

A straw-man fallacy argument is when the viewpoints you are using to argue your conclusion are not actually related to or controlled by the opposition. Much of the objection to Gorsuch Haus falls into ...

Rich Lowry, in his article (March 26) denouncing Bernie Sanders’ proposal to establish a four-day workweek, sums up his point at the end by saying, “Sanders’ idea is a frank expression of economic ...

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “War on Christmas?” It’s a common exaggeration made by those who perceive a societal change from people saying “Merry Christmas” to now saying “Happy Holidays.” An ...

I was humored by Trudy Knowles’ use of the “strawman” fallacy to try to refute my wife’s argument against mask mandates (Letters to the Editor, The Westfield News, Dec. 24, page 4). I will assume Ms.

https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.54.2.0109 • https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/philrhet.54.2.0109 Copy URL ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the debate about ...

In a June column, I argued that citizens have an ethical obligation to others to think critically and value the truth and facts, even if they are contrary to strong personal emotions and group-held ...

What is the Ad Hominem Fallacy? The ad hominem fallacy occurs when someone attacks the person making an argument rather than the argument itself. This fallacy diverts attention from the actual issue ...

This is not an opinion column — as far as I can tell — but terms come up in contexts that intrigue me. The most recent is a “straw man.” It came up in a commentary on National Public Radio that stated ...