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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9095 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 182 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780826498946
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"'an entertaining...idea' Nottingham Evening Post, 29/07/2006 'Armed with this book, we can go fearlessly into verbal combat...knowing how to muster our arguments and showing the fallacies in theirs...make a space for this on your shelves too. You never know when you may need it.' DMJ, The Ark, Spring 2007"

About the Author
MADSEN PIRIE is President of the Adam Smith Institute and author of numerous books including Boost Your IQ and The Sherlock Holmes IQ Book. He was formerly Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Logic at Hillsdale College, Michigan, USA.

Customer Reviews

Turn your brain into a Swiss Army Knife with this combination sword, shield, and bulls**t detector
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!
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.

THE book of the fallacy - a witty read
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.