> Joe Starck wrote:
>
> Charles,
>
> Creating a "straw man or straw men," is a literary
> technique emplowed by a single author, who both
> creates the straw-man and blows it away; it's not a
> two-author activity.
>
>
> ********
>
> A straw-man is being offered when a person gives
> a refutation for an argument no-one has actually
> made.
>
Charles, I think your definition above is called something else, I don't know what it is formally called, but maybe informally, "changing the argument?" or comparing apples to oranges?"
I may have been impolite in the way I made a bug-aboo about your interpretation of "strawman," but only because the way I learned it stuck. As I recall, "strawman is an argumentative technique in which you, yourself, as author or speaker, will refute what you initially stated. It's what you might use for a tough audience or when you really want to buck the status quo, for instance. It's subtle though, if done well your audience isn't onto your intentions untill they realize that their viewpoint has been changed, even shattered, if not completely, but at least partially, and the persuaded are almost always perplexed and surprised at having their viewpoint changed. It's called "strawman" because the initial argument is like a strawman in that the author or speaker knows, and only he knows, that he plans to gradually, gently, blow away his earlier argument straw by straw until it's entirely blown away and replaced with his intentioned stronger argument. I think the technique was coined "strawman" because that's another way of referring to a "frontman," a figurehead, and so it's somewhat analogous to the creation of the "strawman's" position in an essay of persuasion. I can't recall any famous examples, like from Jonathan Swift, or the like, but it seems to me that only writers ant the top of their craft can pull it off; it requires a high degree of art. If I come across a good example I'll surely let you know. Joe Starck, masidon, wi