Pratique du Shadowing: Why you should "steel man" other people - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
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73 phrases
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A straw man is when you simplify or exaggerate somebody's position to make it an easier target.
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It's a target that you can then bat down with adversarial ease.
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For example, if an atheist says that Christianity is just worshipping some bearded man in the sky, that is a straw man,
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because I've yet to meet a Christian who would accept that as a representation of their religion.
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Of course, if a Christian then says
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that an atheist is somebody who does not believe in anything at all
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or that life has no meaning or that we can just do anything that is also quite likely a straw man.
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The problem with a straw man argument is
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that not only does it not address somebody's actual points but it poisons the entire debate.
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It's a kind of bad faith argument that sees conversations as a brawl
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and that truth is just one weapon in the arsenal in a war to win at all costs.
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But there is a better way.
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The opposite of a straw man is a steel man.
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This is where you not only try to represent somebody's position as faithfully as you can and with respect, but you do so in the best possible light.
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You spend a great deal of attention double-checking that what you think somebody's position is, is what that person is actually trying to argue.
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A great example of this in action, I think, is Alex O'Connor.
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I've yet to see a video of his where he willfully
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misrepresent an argument just to make it an easier position to attack.
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In fact, he'll often spend a great deal of time trying to reach a mutual understanding of the position
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and only then will he criticise it and only then will he do so politely.
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In my experience, if you take the time to actually inquire about what somebody actually believes, you'll find a far greater nuance and often far greater agreement than you might have thought at the start.
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For example, only the most dastardly and venal of politicians are actually doing it for themselves.
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I think that most politicians want to make society and the world at least a bit better.
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It's just that the right and the left-wing arguments about how to do that will differ.
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It's long been pointed out that calling your political opponents the enemy
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or evil or idiotic without saying what that means is not only childish, but it's bad for philosophy, it's bad for democracy, and it's bad for politics.
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In his 2013 book, Intuition, Pumps, and Other Tools, the philosopher Daniel Dennett laid out four rules, one of which sounds remarkably like a steel man.
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These are rules for a good debate, and this is what they are.
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First and most important is that you should attempt to express your target's position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says things like,
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well, I wish I had put it like that as well.
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For example, if somebody says to you that social media is inherently evil, you can say to them, well, do you mean that there is some content that is addictive
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and dangerous and that young people especially shouldn't be expected to resist that addiction as much as adults?
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Second, you should list all of the ways that you and your opponent agree on things.
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You might say that, yes, okay, we both agree that there are aspects of social media that are dangerous, that we should have greater regulation and that the conversation should focus mostly on young people.
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Third, you might recognize the ways in which your partner has taught you something new.
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For example, you might say, oh, I didn't know that people today are on average on social media two hours a day.
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Fourth and finally, only then after all of this can you go on to then try and criticize or reject that position.
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You might say, I don't actually think that we should ban all social media.
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In Plato's dialogues, you'll often see Socrates lining up his opponents with a steel man argument.
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A huge part of the dialogue involves Socrates clarifying, laying out and even strengthening the other person's position.
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For example, in the Gorgias, Socrates pauses and reframes Callicles' position about strength and domination, often making it sound more coherent than Callicles himself.
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In Republic, when his opponent argues that justice is nothing more than the interests of the strongest, Socrates doesn't caricature it or simplify the idea.
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Instead, he builds it up into the best version of itself, before then showing why it might be wrong.
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Debates today are often about trying to grab the six o'clock headlines or ride the viral wave with an entertaining gotcha moment.
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But the Socratic method was about understanding fully before disagreeing deeply because that's the spirit of the steel man.
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Of course, Plato's dialogues are not podcast transcripts.
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They are fictionalised accounts of Plato's version of Socrates debating Plato's version of his opponents.
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But the fact that Plato was so willing to present rival opinions in such a strong and positive light, before then pulling them apart,
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reveals just how far we have drifted in what we call a good discussion.
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And in fact, this is why Plato was so suspicious about debates.
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He called debates stupid and dangerous.
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Because according to Plato, debates are very rarely about truth or philosophy.
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They are about ego and pride and winning at all costs.
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Plato often criticises the sophists who, amongst other things, were professional debaters and they would teach other members of the public how they could win at debates.
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They taught people certain tricks and tactics to speak well, how to argue well and how to make the opponent look a bit silly.
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Plato hated these kind of debates
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because it reduced philosophy to a competition where both parties would try to outwit
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and outspeak each other in a kind of game.
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The Greeks called it heuristic and the heuristic debater would appeal to the audience.
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They would mock their opponents.
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They would resort to any fallacious argument they could so long as it meant they could win.
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Plato thought that these debates were not just some harmless fun
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because the big problem with heuristic is that those who are watching the debate confuse the winner with the truth.
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But just because somebody has won a debate through wit and professional tactics doesn't necessarily mean that they are right.
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For Plato, truth and philosophy is a much longer collaborative and dialectic process.
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In many ways, the problem of strawmanning and ridiculing invented beliefs will not go away.
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Point scoring and cheering to the crowd were present in ancient Greece
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and they are here in modern primetime TV debates as well.
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But the steel man is something
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that we can try to bring back into everyday conversations with the people we interact with weekly.
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Because what Plato and Dennett both knew is that if you are to actually grow in your beliefs, you have to see debate as a constructive act and with good intentions.
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Debates are not adversarial opportunities to make your opponent look like an idiot.
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They are opportunities to become better and to grow.
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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon
Cette vidéo contient 73 phrases et 1211 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 6:27. Le locuteur parle vite, environ 188 mots par minute : attendez-vous à des liaisons et à des sons réduits. 82 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.
Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo
15 mots de la vidéo à retenir, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :
| Mot | Prononciation | Sens |
|---|---|---|
| opponent nom | /əˈpəʊ.nənt/ | opposant |
| straw nom | /stɹɔ/ | paille, fétu |
| argue verbe | /ˈɑɹ.ɡju/ | affirmer, débattre |
| dialogue nom | /ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/ | dialogue, conversation |
| belief nom | /bɪˈliːf/ | croyance |
| tactics nom | /ˈtæktɪks/ | tactique |
| politician nom | /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/ | politique, politicien |
| criticize verbe | /ˈkɹɪtɪsaɪz/ | critiquer |
| atheist nom | /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪst/ | athée |
| necessarily adverbe | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | absolument, nécessairement |
| trick nom | /ˈtɹɪk/ | tour |
| everyday adjectif | /ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/ | usuel |
| deeply adverbe | /ˈdi(ː)pli/ | profondément |
| reveal verbe | /ɹɪˈviːl/ | révéler |
| rarely adverbe | /ˈɹɛəɹli/ | rarement |
Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez
| Mot | Sens |
|---|---|
| go away verbe | partir, s'en aller |
| point out verbe | pointer |
Prononciation à surveiller
Le locuteur utilise 10 contractions et formes réduites, comme doesn't, I've, you'll. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.
- Les sons « th »: atheist /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪst/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, faithfully /ˈfeɪθfəli/
- Les sons « sh » et « zh »: politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, worship /ˈwɝ.ʃɪp/, addiction /əˈdɪkˌʃən/
- Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/, representation /ˌɹɛp.ɹə.zɛnˈteɪ.ʃən/, collaborative /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹə.tɪv/
Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo
- Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
- Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
- Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme opponent, straw, argue.
La grammaire de cette vidéo
Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :
| Structure | Dans la vidéo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant | has taught · have drifted · has won |
| Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait | been pointed · be expected · are fictionalised |
| Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chose | somebody who does · those who are |
Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?
Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.