Dictionary

strawmannish en · ADJ

Etymology

From strawman + -ish.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of a straw man (an insubstantial concept, idea, endeavor or argument).
   • And even this criticism seems disorganized and strawmannish[…]. 1971, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, page 149:
   • Merkl is also slightly “strawmannish” in the course of his demolition of the “lower-middle-class thesis” of fascism (pp. 138-44, 142-43, 148-53, 157-59, 289-91) since his own conclusions actually validate the more theoretical studies by Juan Linz (“heterogeneity”), Eugen Weber (“those on the way up and those on the way down”), Wolfgang Sauer (“losers”) and Charles Maier on the broad middle-class consumer base of fascism. 1980, The Psychohistory Review, page 305:
   • Frazier, the creator of the experiment, defends his theories of social organization against Professor Burris, a slightly skeptical but generally sympathetic antagonist, and Professor Castle, a tender-minded philosopher and a bumptious, nasty, and unreasonable caviller, who interrupts the discussion from time to time with generally strawmannish objections. 1974, Bruce Goldberg, “Skinner’s Behaviorist Utopia”, in Tibor R[ichard] Machan, editor, The Libertarian Alternative: Essays in Social and Political Philosophy, Chicago, Ill.: Nelson-Hall Company, →ISBN, part II (State and Societies), page 96:

Forms