Comments on: The Weak Man

By: The Weak Man Argument | anotherpanacea

The Weak Man Argument | anotherpanacea — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:50:17 +0000

[...] read. In it, Talisse and Aikin propose a variant of the “Straw Man fallacy,” the “Weak Man.” The Weak Man fallacy doesn’t misstate a rival’s position like a ’straw [...]

By: Två saker | Sänd mina rötter regn

Två saker | Sänd mina rötter regn — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:37:04 +0000

[...] det scenario som är det mest pessimistiska. Så personligen tycker jag att det är något av ett weak man-argument. I vilken fall som helst så har Manicore en poäng i sin kommentar att det nog är [...]

By: The 12 days of global warming - E.D. Kain - American Tory - True/Slant

The 12 days of global warming - E.D. Kain - American Tory - True/Slant — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:19:55 +0000

[...] there’s no conspiracy!” and “in whose interest would be a conspiracy?“. Julian Sanchez refers to this as the “weak man” argument. It’s lazy, intellectually dishonest, and doesn’t convince anyone who doesn’t [...]

By: If we add ONE more strawman to this pile, we’ll be in serious danger of a brushfire » Postmodern Conservative | A First Things Blog

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:33:12 +0000

[...] no conspiracy!” and “in whose interest would be a conspiracy?“. Julian Sanchez refers to this as the “weak man” argument. It’s lazy, intellectually dishonest, and doesn’t convince anyone who [...]

By: 06-Sep-2009 | MohanArun.com

06-Sep-2009 | MohanArun.com — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:58:16 +0000

[...] The Weak Man Argument or Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind. A variant of the ‘Straw Man fallacy,’ the ‘weak man’ doesn’t misstate a rival’s position like a ’straw man,’ but instead chooses “the opposition’s weakest (or one of its weakest) arguments or proponents for attack.” Originally proposed by Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin here. (pdf) [...]

By: The Sotomayor Freakout « Wintry Smile

The Sotomayor Freakout « Wintry Smile — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:55:26 +0000

[...] entering office has been shoddy at best. Perhaps what we have is a negative consequence of the weak man argument that Julian “logical fallacies” Sanchez alerted us to. Possibly related posts: [...]

By: The Sotomayor Rorschach « Wintry Smile

The Sotomayor Rorschach « Wintry Smile — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:51:11 +0000

By: limits of discourse « It would have been devastatingly beautiful.

limits of discourse « It would have been devastatingly beautiful. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:11:08 +0000

[...] 5, 2009 Although I am loathe to link to something written by a libertarian, Julian Sanchez’ explication of the ‘weak man’ argument seems to be of sufficient interest. Referring to Yvonne Raley and Robert Talisse’s 2008 [...]

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:11:53 +0000

I’ve ong thought that the problem was the prevalence of lawyers working on behalf of various interest groups, individuals and organizations. Lawyers are trained to advocate, not to engage in reasoned debate, and they are more concerned with “winning” than with trying to find the “best answer.”

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:49:58 +0000

I think Bill Kristol used something similar to this in his criticism of Todd Purdum’s piece. Rather than taking on some of the more salient aspects of the article, he picked the weakest, most dubious _looking_ point of a lengthy piece to demonstrate its lack of veracity.

It’s not even that he picked the weakest point, just the one that _appeared_ weakest.