How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic |  | Author: Madsen Pirie
Publisher: Continuum
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 4,346
Media: Paperback
Pages: 192
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0826498949
Dewey Decimal Number: 165
EAN: 9780826498946
ASIN: 0826498949
Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this witty and infectious book, Madsen Pirie provides a complete guide to using - and indeed abusing - logic in order to win arguments. He identifies with devastating examples all the most common fallacies popularly used in argument. We all like to think of ourselves as clear-headed and logical - but all readers will find in this book fallacies of which they themselves are guilty. The author shows you how to simultaneously strengthen your own thinking and identify the weaknesses in other people's arguments. And, more mischievously, Pirie also shows how to be deliberately illogical - and get away with it. This book will make you maddeningly smart: your family, friends and opponents will all wish that you had never read it.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
 THE book of the fallacy - a witty read November 15, 2006
DClark004
47 out of 48 found this review helpful
This book is a reproduction of the classic out of print book entitled "Book of the Fallacy: A Training Manual for Intellectual Subversives", which is one of the greatest and wittiest books ever written about fallacies and argument I've ever read.
I'm happy to see that it is now available again - for a reasonable price, because it makes a wonderful gift especially for young adults, or for anyone who would enjoy learning to win arguments.
I equate this book in importance to a parent teaching their child boxing to defend themselves on the playground. This book teaches how to defend themselves in debate, where one's opponent will cry uncle from a few well placed "argumentum ad ignorantiam" or a couple "tu quoque" with a swift kick in the rump from a well placed "red herring" as they scamper a way and submit in defeat.
If there is any question of the value this book has to us "fallacy buffs", simply look at the used book prices for the original book, and thank your lucky stars that it is now available again.
Madsen Pirie is the master.
Turn your brain into a Swiss Army Knife with this combination sword, shield, and bulls**t detector August 19, 2006
Zeno (New Jersey)
53 out of 58 found this review helpful
There are a lot of critical thinking books out there, but few are as easily accessible and entertaining as "How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic." It shines a light on all the hidden trip wires, trap doors, and funhouse mirrors that the professional spinners use to keep us dizzy.
Wouldn't you like to learn how to see through all their smoke and mirrors? In this day and age, can any of us really afford not to?
Like its predecessor (the out-of print "Book of the Fallacy") this is a cure for our near-sighted world, especially in these days when-- whether from information overload or apathy-- we all seem to passively accept our collective blurred vision.
But don't worry, every trick in the book is revealed here in easy, to-the-point explanations. Straw men, red herrings, wishful thinking, etc--if you don't know what they are, you should-- they are the oily wool that lawyers, politicians, interest groups, media, organized religion, and out-and-out-con artists pull over your eyes everyday.
Here is the ultimate set of shears against them all. No more picked pockets, washed brains, and swiped votes. A lot of people would prefer if you didn't read this book and learn its valuable secrets-- and by all means don't, if you want them to continue to have their way. As for the rest of you, an eye-opening awaits...
Defend yourself! July 5, 2006
Stephen B. Waters (Rome, NY USA)
36 out of 38 found this review helpful
How do you expect to defend yourself against the onslaught of words, words, words, if you were not equipped in school with the weapons to do so? Rather than a "reading" book, this is a "stick it in the face of those who don't know how to think or care to learn" book. Buy it for your own safety's sake.
Classical education used to teach one how to think -- grammar, logic, rhetoric -- after which one practiced on subjects. Nowadays, one learns subjects leaving to chance one will also learn to think. What's more, people cannot discern fuzzy thinking through fuzzy thinking. Do yourself a favor, a favor for those with whom you associate, and a favor to society -- do not walk around unarmed.
Entertaining and educational December 7, 2006
Gary Hellmann (Tucson, Arizona)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
There's a lot to like about this book, as it's entertaining, witty, and educational on top of all that. The title isn't really an accurate reflection of what's in the book, although he does talk about winning arguments too. The author clearly seems to know a lot about argument and about fallacies, and he is able to present the information in a manner that is clever (in the best sense of the word) and he uses many amusing examples. Since the book is done in short sections, it is ideal to pick up and read when time is short, or perhaps left on the nightstand to read a fallacy or two before sleeping. On the other hand, I liked it enough that I read it in just a couple of days, wanting to know what the next fallacy was and what the next example would be.
There are 79 fallacies listed alphabetically from the the Abusive Analogy through Wishful Thinking, although there are lists that show how they can be subdivided for reasons of classification by type at the end of the book. Each fallacy is treated in a similar manner starting with the name of the fallacy, an explanation of what it means, and a couple of examples of how it works. There is then a discussion of the fallacy that goes into history of the fallacy, who might want to use it, for whom it might be most effective, and sometimes a pithy summary of the fallacy. After another example the author discusses how one might use the fallacious reasoning to one's own benefit and gives an example of how that might be done.
Many examples are given, often using economics and politics, and there is a tendency on the author's part to use British examples. Most of them are amusing and clever and the author's commentary is quite lively and entertaining, and the wordplay is wonderful. Sometimes one wishes for references for the examples (even though references aren't really needed), such as the one on page 44 which discusses the Cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy (that assumes that events which occurred together are causally connected). The example is: "A US legislator recently noted that a high crime rate correlated with a high prison population, and suggested that the prisoners be released in order to cut the crime figures." If this is true (and I suppose it might be) it would be fun to know who said it. There is very little of formal logic in the book and much informal logic, but the book clearly presupposes that you find logic and reason to be more important than anything else in argument and discussion.
It would even make a great gift for somebody on your list that might benefit from thinking more clearly, or at least more like you.
An encyclopedia of logical fallacies November 25, 2009
Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Madsen Pirie delightfully perpetuates the stereotype of droll Englishmen in this wonderful encyclopedia of logical fallacies.
The title is somewhat misleading as Pirie doesn't really provide any guides to semantic trickery that will allow you to overcome the opponent unfortunate enough to engage you in reasoned debate.
Rather Pirie provides the reader with very useful definitions and examples of 79 varieties of logical fallacies. Study these, train yourself to evaluate what you hear and read against these descriptions and you will be able to massacre any opponent who gives you a chance to get a word in. When you read or merely listen, you'll quickly learn - big surprise - that few people are logical. In fact, most of the things we are told by politicians and other public figures score high on logical fallacy list.
Pirie is droll, no two ways about it. His writing style may actually baffle or even offend those who don't see the humor running throughout the book. That doesn't mean it's a joke book: just that Madsen Pirie is a fun kind of guy in a very subtle way.
This is the kind of thing that should be taught in high schools and colleges, but won't be, lest the students see how illogical their teachers and the system they are trapped in are.
Great book, handy to have around in an age where reason is under hourly attack.
Jerry
Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
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