Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The Book of the Fallacy: A Training Manual for Intellectual Subversives
  
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Book of the Fallacy: A Training Manual for Intellectual Subversives (Hardcover)

by Madsen Pirie (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


2 used from £30.00

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Create Training manuals opens new browser window
www.stt-trainer.com/Documentation  -  Automatically create manuals for your IT system training. Free Demo! 
   110 Million Books opens new browser window
www.AbeBooks.co.uk/Books  -  The online marketplace for new, used, rare, and out-of-print books 
  
 

Product details

  • Hardcover: 189 pages
  • Publisher: Routledge (3 Oct 1985)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 071020521X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0710205216
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,107,259 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Product Description

Those tricks of logic or language used to persuade people into accepting false beliefs are gleefully exposed.

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic
64% buy
How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic 3.6 out of 5 stars (11)
£5.99
Logic
30% buy
Logic 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
£6.47
Rulebook for Arguments
6% buy
Rulebook for Arguments 4.8 out of 5 stars (6)
£4.25
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Invaluble guide to spotting faulty logic, 27 Jul 2006
By Marshall Lord (Whitehaven, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
We've all been in the situation where some smart-alec produces an argument, often as a joke, which everyone knows must be wrong but where nobody can quite see the mistake.

More seriously, I suspect most of us have seen debates where one side appears to have much more evidence to support their case, until someone comes along who presents the other side of the argument so much better that everyone is convinced - at least until after the superior speaker has won the vote/verdict/board or council decision, by which time it is too late.

Madsen Pirie's book is a masterly and very entertaining guide to the different tricks which people can use to make their argument sound much stronger than it really is, how to spot them, and what the holes in their logic are.

He lists the logical fallacies which, by accident or design, can lead people to support false conclusions.

Unfortunately, as Madsen Pirie points out, knowing why the argument you are listening to is wrong does not always make it easy to defeat the person advancing it. Arguments "ad baculum" (by threat of force) do not go away if you prove the person making the threat to be wrong, irrelevant humour, if it is funny enough, can carry away a valid argument on a gale of laughter, and emotional appeals can be extremely hard to stop with mere logic.

Nevertheless, to be able to understand why an argument is wrong is a useful start - if you don't know yourself you have little chance of persuading anyone else. And this book is really helpful at showing you how to see where faulty logic is in play.

This book was republished in 2006 with a new title "How to Win Every Argument - the use and abuse of logic." The text is about 95% common, although the new version has a few updated concepts such as "Thatcher's Blame."

Unfortunately the new book does not include the highly amusing cartoons which illustrate this original version.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5.0 out of 5 stars book review madsen pirie, 10 Jul 2009
By C. A. Meehan "Charlie Meehan" (Dublin Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I have had a copy of this book for years and have enjoyed it so much that I have bought more copies to give to friends and family as presents so I was glad to be able to get this copy so easily.

thank you
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.