A straw man, also known in the UK as an Aunt Sally, is a type of argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man"), and to refute it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.
Famous quotes containing the words straw and/or man:
“Through tattered clothes great vices do appear;
Robes and furred gowns hide all. Place sin with gold,
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks:
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A good man will not engage even in a national cause, without examining the justice of it.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)