There are discussions that are desperate. Sometimes, instead of using rational arguments or appealing to facts, some people use arguments that are not very honest in an argument. Another common behavior of those who do this is to appeal to emotions rather than reason. One of the best known and most widely used false arguments is the scarecrow bug.
The argumentative errors are formed by arguments that, although they seem valid at first, they are not. These are false lines of reasoning. However, it is not uncommon to find arguments of the kind that support different positions. The resulting conclusions are incorrect or, rather, not necessarily correct.
- Specifically.
- The scarecrow bug occurs when a person takes an argument from their opponent in an argument and manipulates it to make it appear less credible.
- Today.
- It is one of the most widely used forms of manipulation.
- In this article we will see exactly what the scarecrow bug is.
- And we will also look at some examples.
The study of fallacies is part of disciplines such as philosophy and psychology. For many centuries, scholars in these fields have tried to identify different ways of arguing that they are wrong, but they appear to be right.
For many centuries, they believed that human beings not only had the ability to think rationally, but were also largely rational. However, over the past several decades, new research has pointed out that rationality is, in fact, an exception to human thought. Contrary to what we previously believed, we tend to get carried away by unconscious processes.
So when someone presents us with reasoning, it is often difficult to identify the logic behind it and whether it is valid or not. In cases where the argument seems rational but is not, we are faced with an error. There are many different types of this, but one of the most common in discussions is the scarecrow bug.
The mistake of the scarecrow is to replace a valid argument of our adversary with an argument that resembles it but is false. Therefore, it is easier to hit the person causing them to lose their credibility than to make another argument. This is generally done to defend political, religious and social ideologies.
For this reason, it is common to find the scarecrow error in discussions about topics such as abortion or immigration. It can also be seen in political debates, in the media, and in official statements.
The intention behind this is not to have to face the other person’s arguments or another position. This is because, through the straw man mistake, the other’s arguments are easily replaced by nonsense.
The structure of the error is as follows
Here are some examples to illustrate what this error is.
Imagine a discussion about changing the minimum age for drinking alcoholic beverages. The discussion, after the scarecrow bug, could go like this:
As can be seen, person B did not respond to A’s argument. On the contrary, he took what A suggested to the extreme, calling the 16-year-olds. In this way, you avoid having to argue with the other person in a rational and logical way.
In this case, person B does not understand how evolution works. So instead of refuting the argument using logic, you use a flawed argument that does not respond to what A said. In this case, the error could also be seen as a reduction to the absurd.
The scarecrow bug is one of the most widely used. Therefore, it is essential to identify it and to be able to debate from logic and rationality.