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Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington
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Product Description
Deploying jokes and cartoon as well as the occasional insight from Aristotle and his peers, Cathcart and Klein explain what politicos are up to when they state: “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” (Donald Rumsfeld), “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” (Bill Clinton), or even, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” (Thomas Jefferson, et al).
Drawing from the pronouncements of everyone from Caesar to Condoleeza Rice, Genghis Kahn to Hillary Clinton, and Adolf Hitler to Al Sharpton. Cathcart and Klein help us learn to identify tricks such as “The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy” (non causa pro causa) and the “The Fallacy Fallacy” (argumentum and logicam). Aristotle and an Aardvark is for anyone who ever felt like the politicos and pundits were speaking Greek. At least Cathcart and Klein provide the Latin name for it (raudatio publica)!
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1652 in Books
- Published on: 2008-01-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 196 pages
Editorial Reviews
From AudioFile
This quirky little gem takes world leaders and politicians from Genghis Khan to George W. Bush to task for what the authors have dubbed ³logical flimflam.² Cathcart and Klein gleefully deconstruct direct quotes from well-known people and documents to expose the faulty evidence, sources, and reasoning employed as politicians attempt to hoodwink us. Pointed references to current events and the occasional joke add timeliness and spice to the text. Johnny Heller smoothly handles the transitions from the sacred to the profane as the book shifts from the Greek of Aristotle to the often scatological language of the jokes. Heller's brisk pace and great comic timing allow the listener to follow the authors' serious underlying message while still enjoying their humor. M.O.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Tom Cathcart and Dan Klein pursued the usual careers after majoring in philosophy at Harvard. Tom worked with street gangs in Chicago and dropped in and out of various divinity schools. Dan wrote jokes for comedians, designed stunts for Candid Camera, and continues to pen thrillers. Each lives with his wife in New England.
Customer Reviews
Overdue assesment of political doublespeak
From Jerome Stephens, retired reference librarian, Warren, Ohio
It is interesting to note the trends of thought in the reviews. So they concentrate on the Bush administration. That administration is the one that has been in the news for the last 8 years. If the book had been published in 2000, the Clinton administration would have supplied an equal amount of equally good material for the book.
Fallacies are fallacies, and can be hard to understand and trace. The authors have done quite well with an inherently slippery subject.
Nice idea, but...
I watched the authors on C-SPAN during their book tour and was intrigued.
I just bought the book, and I am... disappointed.
Oh, the jokes are amusing enough, and the explanation of logical fallacies is dead simple to understand, and the examples given are spot on- let's make no dispute on that. A quick reading of this book will educate the thoughtful mind on exactly how and where our leaders are trying to fool us.
The problem is that, well, it's a quick read. It's too quick. It is, to be frank, shallow- a quick dip on each topic, then rushing on to the next, without fully developing or explaining any one item, much less all of them. This is a book to which the word "profound" need not apply; there are no openings available.
The book also suffers from leaning too heavily on the Bush administration for examples. True, George W. Bush and his cronies have raised lying to the voters to new heights, but there needs to be political balance in an educational work such as this; otherwise a large portion of the readership will tune it out as being partisan. I say again, Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Gonzales, Rice, and the rest of the Bush White House employ logical fallacies and outright deception like Olympic champions- but that's no excuse for failing to give more than token gestures to demonstrating Democrats' equally offensive use of the tactics.
One final quibble: if you can use the eight letter word for bovine excreta without censorship, you can use its four letter root word without censorship. If you can't say the word without blanking out letters in the w--d, you shouldn't use the word at all. Please don't treat your readers like little kids, especially since little kids know quite well what "the F word" is- even if they might not know what it means.
A Negative Exemplar
I suppose I'm just piling on, but I also was quite disappointed with Aristotle and an Aardvark after enjoying Cathcart and Klein's previous book. I expected some bashing of conservatives and Republicans, but I (perhaps naively) expected balance. After all, politicians are politicians no matter which side of the spectrum they pretend to be from. While there were a few examples of silliness from the other side of the aisle, Cathcart and Klein spent the majority of the book bashing President Bush and other conservatives.
However, they did provide frequent examples of ad hominem attacks, such as the many derisive pseudo-titles given the President and the "hilarious" little reference to Tom Delay's background in the extermination business. What? Does providing a needed service and running a successful business prepare a person less well for public office than getting rich through the legal extortion that is our current tort system (e.g. a certain former senator from North Carolina, presidential candidate, and moral leading light)?
I have seen far better explanations of logical fallacies in textbooks for Freshman Composition and Introductory Public Speaking. I'm sure Cathcart and Klein will cry over my critique all the way to bank; nevertheless, I won't be buying any of their work again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. If the authors had any integrity, they would market this book with a marketing line like "If you loved Fahrenheit 911, you'll love Aristotle and an Aardvark."
Too bad I can't get my money back.
