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42 Fallacies
 
 
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42 Fallacies [Kindle Edition]

Michael LaBossiere (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews) |
Digital List Price: £0.77 What's this?
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Product Description

Product Description

This book presents definitions and examples of the following informal fallacies:

Ad Hominem

Ad Hominem Tu Quoque

Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief

Appeal to Authority

Appeal to Belief

Appeal to Common Practice

Appeal to Emotion

Appeal to Popularity

Appeal to Fear

Appeal to Flattery

Appeal to Novelty

Appeal to Pity

Appeal to Popularity

Appeal to Ridicule

Appeal to Spite

Appeal to Tradition

Begging the Question

Biased Generalization

Burden of Proof

Circumstantial Ad Hominem

Fallacy of Composition

Confusing Cause and Effect

Fallacy of Division

False Dilemma

Gambler’s Fallacy

Genetic Fallacy

Guilt by Association

Hasty Generalization

Ignoring a Common Cause

Middle Ground

Misleading Vividness

Peer Pressure

Personal Attack

Poisoning the Well

Post Hoc

Questionable Cause

Red Herring

Relativist Fallacy

Slippery Slope

Special Pleading

Spotlight

Straw Man

Two Wrongs Make a Right

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More About the Author

Michael LaBossiere
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Den
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This does exactly what it says, cover 42 of the most common fallacious arguments that are likely to be used by or against you in the course of discussion. Laid out in an easy read style, it's like learning your vocabulary at school.

Each fallacy comes with detailed description and ample samples so that you not only absorb the epistemology of each individual fallacy, but learn it's use in everyday conversation.

Certainly a worthy read as an intellectual self-defence against flawed arguments that are often intentionally or not, used against us in the course of our day.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
There's no doubt that this book has been written by an expert and that it provides clear and interesting discussion of the subject of logical fallacy. As a Kindle book, costing only a few pennies, it's also good value for money.

I think the author has missed an opportunity to turn the text, which looks a little like university course notes (and refers to itself as "the programme" at some point, suggesting this further) into a full-blown reference in its own right. If I could change the book, I would deal with:

- A handful of annoying typos which mean you have to work out what the author meant to write, as what is written doesn't make sense
- The ordering of the fallacies - they're clearly related, but seem to be presented in an order that doesn't reflect that
- Duplications within the fallacies - it's unclear whether there are truly 42 distinct fallacies, or whether there are a few core ones with subtle variations on them to watch out for

In places, this book is a field guide showing how to spot these fallacies in action, it would also help if the examples were more consistent, showing the simple cases and then the more subtle cases, explaining perhaps how some of the more subtle cases are truly fallacious.

The book is close to a book of patterns, helping you to identify and deal with fallacies. It might be useful if each fallacy were described a bit more consistently, and maybe even came with some examples for how to counter-argue them. In some cases, the examples give tantalising clues on counter-argument. Conversely, fallacies can be used to unscrupulously win arguments, so it would be interesting to be shown how to apply these fallacies "under the radar".

Overall, this is a promising work on the subject, but feels very much like a hasty repackage of something that had already been written. With a little more work, this could be so much more - perhaps we'll see this in a later revision.
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Amazon.com:  7 reviews
150 of 155 people found the following review helpful
Great book; Free pdf available by author 6 Jun 2011
By samiam - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
the .99 i paid for this was worth it, so i could read it across my kindle app devices. but know that if you google the title, you'll find that the author kindly offers it as a free pdf online.

it's structured in a very concise format, listing one fallacy (with descriptions and explanations) after another. the table of contents is fully linked, as well.

not an extensive review, but hopefully helpful.
54 of 56 people found the following review helpful
I really like this book. 22 April 2011
By D. Brown - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I own and have read How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic by Madsen Pirie and Nonsense: A Handbook of Logical Fallacies by Robert J. Gula.

This book isn't as in-depth as those books but it's great for a quick reference of logic fallacies. An easy read--and for the price it's a great value.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Best quick reference on incorrect reasoning 27 Oct 2011
By JMM - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
For 99 cents this title is great. The author gives a brief explanation on each fallacy as well as 2-3 clear examples. Perfect for a reference guide but for more detailed examples I would recommend "Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows".
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Popular Highlights

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A deductive argument is an argument such that the premises provide (or appear to provide) complete support for the conclusion. An inductive argument is an argument such that the premises provide (or appear to provide) some degree of support (but less than complete support) for the conclusion. &quote;
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A fallacy is, very generally, an error in reasoning. This differs from a factual error, which is simply being wrong about the facts. To be more specific, a fallacy is an argument in which the premises given for the conclusion do not provide the needed degree of support. &quote;
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A good deductive argument is known as a valid argument and is such that if all its premises are true, then its conclusion must be true. &quote;
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