An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments
The antidote to fuzzy thinking, with furry animals! Have you read (or stumbled into) one too many irrational online debates? Ali Almossawi certainly had, so he wrote "An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments"! This handy guide is here to bring the internet age a much-needed dose of old-school logic...
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The antidote to fuzzy thinking, with furry animals!
Have you read (or stumbled into) one too many irrational online debates? Ali Almossawi certainly had, so he wrote "An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments"! This handy guide is here to bring the internet age a much-needed dose of old-school logic (really old-school, "a la" Aristotle).
Here are cogent explanations of the "straw man" fallacy, the "slippery slope" argument, the "ad hominem" attack, and other common attempts at reasoning that actually fall short plus a beautifully drawn menagerie of animals who (adorably) commit every logical "faux pas." Rabbit thinks a strange light in the sky "must" be a UFO because no one can prove otherwise ("the appeal to ignorance"). And Lion doesn t believe that gas emissions harm the planet because, if that "were" true, he wouldn t like the result (the "argument from consequences").
Once you learn to recognize these abuses of reason, they start to crop up everywhere from congressional debate to YouTube comments which makes this geek-chic book a "must" for anyone in the habit of holding opinions."
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9781615192250 (1615192255)
ASIN: 1615192255
Publish date: 2014-08-26
Publisher: Experiment
Pages no: 64
Edition language: English
I enjoyed this concise collection of the types of logic failures so common in conversation and debate, and I found the explanations excellent (mostly) but I have to admit to finding the illustrations, skilful though they are, a bit obscure. Some worked, but others just failed to clearly illustrate ...
This short little book is a good look at some of the most common fallacies. It has good use of illustrations and does a very good job conveying the information.