How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic

Author: Madsen Pirie
Genre: nonfiction
Publication info: Continuum, 2006
Pages: 182


This was one of those books where I hoped the circulation employee at the library wouldn't ask me any questions. The truth is I've been interested in logical fallacies for a while now, but especially in the past year. After a somewhat upsetting political conversation with a friend of mine, I decided I wanted to look into the topic more fully.

The title of the book is a little misleading. It's not really a how-to book as you would normally think of one. (I think the original title, The Book of Fallacy, fits better, although it probably doesn't grab your attention as well.) Don't look for step-by-step instructions or practice exercises in this book.

That said, I found this book very informative and also very entertaining. It's basically an extensive (sometimes so extensive that some entries are hard to tell apart), and very detailed, index of logical fallacies from several categories. In each entry, Madsen Pirie gives a clear, understandable definition. Then he gives a few examples (which he promptly makes fun of) and shows several ways the fallacy might appear. Last of all, he tells you how you can use the fallacy to your own advantage---to deceive people.

Because of that, I almost felt a little dirty when I started the book. He says right up front that one of the purposes of the book is to teach you to trick people. I wasn't interested in that. I just wanted to learn more about logical fallacies so I could recognize them in other people's arguments.

And I guess I did learn that. Instead of learning to create effective arguments, I learned how to pick apart others' arguments (I have an especially good time with letters to the editor). I became more of a critic than I already am. Ironically, the person I notice most often committing logical fallacies is me. But hopefully, now that I know more about them, I'll eventually learn to eliminate them from my arguments.

Or maybe I'll end up doing exactly what the book was supposed to teach me to do.