Many of us assume that a book will fulfill the promises it makes on its cover. Guess what in multiple cases, they do. Take, for example, the book ‘How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic” by Madsen Pirie. This book contains over 100 distinct hypotheses for arguments, that are sound and some of which have significant logical flaws. You will succeed if you can employ the former and recognize and refute the latter. Pirie offers a comprehensive manual for triumphing in disputes ranging from the banal to the grave by introducing additional chapters on how to win in writing, the pub, with a buddy, on Fb, and in 140 characters (on Twitter). All of the most prevalent fallacies that are frequently employed in arguments are identified by him with devastating instances. We all want to think of ourselves as rational and clear-headed, yet every reader will discover fallacies in this book that they are culpable of. The author demonstrates how to develop your thinking while also spotting the flaws in others’ arguments. Furthermore, Pirie demonstrates how to purposefully be irrational – and get away with it.
There is a lot to learn in this book, which is divided into five major kinds of fallacies: impersonal and then personal fallacies of language, omission, intrusion, and relevance. However, it is a fun read for a book on logic. I thought the presentation was a little illogical because the arguments were listed alphabetically rather than according to those five categories. Numerous Latin names are listed alphabetically. Sadly, maybe, the ‘winner’ in every situation is almost always the person who is correct regardless of the outcome, and this book is more about how to create arguments than how to win. However, there is a lot to be learned from this if you need to persuade others that you are correct.
Let’s examine the arguments now. If someone claims that this orchestra must be good because every musician in it is talented, and you wish to disagree, you might say that an orchestra is a collective effort, and just because an individual is talented doesn’t mean they will work well with others, keep time, or take the path well as a group. While the orchestra may be excellent, nothing overpowering about it. How about the age-old logical conundrum that asserts that because some athletes eat chocolate, all cheerleaders eat chocolate since all cheerleaders are athletes? This does not infer from the information provided here. Nothing can be inferred with certainty because some athletes make up all cheerleaders (though for avoiding doubt, we eat chocolate, often with photographic evidence, as part of a highly crucial Cheerleaders Against Anorexia campaign).
| Name | How to Win Any Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic |
| Author | Madsen Pirie |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Pages | 240 |
| Language | English |
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How to Win Any Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic by Madsen Pirie Pdf Download
By assisting you in identifying presumptions or omissions in an argument and enabling you to answer wittily, reading this book enhances your ability to be creative in conversation. Anecdotal reasoning, which uses a few specific incidents to refute a general argument, is the most effective error. An example from the book presents a case for reforming welfare to encourage recipients to look for work whenever feasible and a counterargument about a beneficiary who committed himself after having his benefits cut off. Individual examples should not be used as a counterargument to statistics.
“Plurium interrogationum” is highly successful because it provides the listener with a fictitious option over their fate: Do you want to place your bricks in the container or on the shelf? Think about the underlying notions in the argument when anything doesn’t sound correct.
For instance, you’ll frequently hear the claim “Kills 99 percent of all home germs” in advertisements for household cleaners. Because accurate numbers are employed to represent imprecise concepts, this mistake is known as False Precision. What does “household germ” mean in this context? What if the others get malaria? Where quality is a crucial component, the advertisers are employing quantity.
How to Win Any Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic Full Book Pdf Download by Madsen Pirie
This book is likable because it provides advice on how to win arguments, whether it be by recognizing scenarios and how to utilize these fallacies effectively or by suggesting that choosing evidence that will most likely be relatable to the other person’s experience is better. For example, use an instance from athletics to support your point if they are a sports enthusiast. It exposes all the covert traps, trip wires, and funhouse reflects that the expert spinners utilize to keep us spinning. Why not get the ability to see through all of their smoke and mirrors? Who among us could afford not to in this day and age?
This is a remedy for our nearsighted world, just like its predecessor (the out-of-print “Book of the Fallacy”), especially in these times when we all appear to meekly accept our society’s collective impaired vision, whether due to information overload or indifference. Every trick in the book is explained simply and concisely. If you don’t know what red herrings, Straw men, wishful thinking, etc. are, you should. They are the greasy wool that attorneys, politicians, interest groups, the media, organized religion, and outright con artists draw over your eyes every day.