Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-free Arguments 6th Edition
There is a newer edition of this item:
- ISBN-100495095060
- ISBN-13978-0495095064
- Edition6th
- PublisherWadsworth Publishing
- Publication dateFebruary 21, 2008
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.3 x 0.58 x 9 inches
- Print length256 pages
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Wadsworth Publishing; 6th edition (February 21, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0495095060
- ISBN-13 : 978-0495095064
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 0.58 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,599,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,242 in Mathematical Logic
- #2,253 in Philosophy of Logic & Language
- #6,877 in Philosophy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The book uses clear and familiar everyday examples to make the points, instead of presenting things in an abstract and think-tank way, and most people will find themselves realizing that they have had arguments or debates exactly like those described in the book. The book clearly demonstrates how much reason and critical thinking can be diminished or overlooked by laziness or unwillingness on the part of people to care enough to think well.
The chapters follow a clear course and almost every logical fallacy I have ever encountered in the classroom or the real world is covered in the book. It explains the fallacy, gives examples, and shows how to expose the fallacy for being a poor argument, as well as demonstrating ways to combat and point out to the other person (in a nice way) the flaw in the reasoning. The tone of the book is pleasently informal, as it attempts to create familiar dialouge and situations to which the reader can easily identify. I highly reccommend the book and think that anyone who cares enough to want to think more maturely would benefit greatly.
This book will give the reader the knowledge and insight to put forth good arguments as well as point out how to identify flaws in others.
Of particular interest is the author's focus on the quest for the truth, or as he puts it the most defensible position. While the techniques laid out in this book can be used to 'win' arguments, the focus in primarily on helping find the truth.
Highly recommended for anyone in business.
With such a large number of fallacies demanding multiple examples, the author must be forgiven if some of them seem a little off the mark, even while being technically correct. For example, the proposition (I'm paraphrasing) "Our baseball team was 1 and 11 this year, but with a new coach we'll do better next year." is in fact false. However, if the proposition were that "we'll probably do better" it would be true, because the probability is that we would get an average coach and an average coach has a record of 0.500, while assuming that coaching has a positive effect. Another example has former Predident Bush answering the question, "Did Dan Quayle's parents help him get into the national guard?" with words to the effect that "At least he served patrioticly and didn't run to Canada or burn the flag." The answer while technically irrelevant is a politician's way of saying, "Whether his parents helped or not is unimportant, at least ...blah, blah." Such an answer invites a rejoinder along the lines of "It really is important, because ..." The fault of the example is that it implies it is OK to rest on the technicalities even when you have a very good idea of what your opponent is really saying.
So if some of the example are a little off-base, perhaps that is all to the good as a learning experience. The small bits of uneasiness are left to the student as an exercise to resolve. The author provides the tools for doing so.
The Fourth Chapter ends with a table of 60 fallacies, however 35 of the fallacies are not defined or further discussed in the text.
The fallacies and definitions that do get covered are covered pretty well.
All this for $35! What a rip off!