How to Win Every Argument-The Use And Abuse of Logic PDF eBook Free Download
Introduction
Sound reasoning is the basis of winning at argument. Logical fallacies undermine arguments. They are a source of enduring fascination, and have been studied for at least two-and-a-half millennia. Knowledge of them is useful, both to avoid those used inadvertently by others and even to use a few with intent to deceive. The fascination and the usefulness which they impart,however, should not be allowed to conceal the pleasure which identifying them can give.
Every schoolboy knows

ignorant of matters so widely understood by children, are supposed to keep silent about their doubts. Thus complex and dubious assertions are passed off unquestioned.The tactic is fallacious. Its basic purpose is to appeal beyond the
evidence to secure acceptance. The audience is invited to assent not from conviction but out of shame and fear of being thought less knowledgeable than a mere child. The merits of the point are meanwhile overlooked.So widely used is the tactic that the hapless youth is now encumbered with several encyclopaedias of knowledge. There is
scarcely anything which he does not know.
The runaway train

The obvious conclusion of this runaway train is that if saving lives is the sole aim, the speed-limit should be set at the level which saves the most, and this is 0 mph.In practice the lives at risk for each proposed speed-limit have to be measured against what is achieved by the ability to travel and to transport goods rapidly. Most of our daily activities involve a degree of risk which could be reduced if we limited our actions. In practice we trade off risks against convenience and comfort. If the case for making the speed-limit 60 mph is based solely on the lives which could be saved, the arguer will need additional reasons to stop at 60 mph before the runaway train of his own argument takes him to 50 mph, then 40 mph, and finally crashes into the buffers when it reaches 0 mph.
Thatcher's blame

of a roof.In her first few years in office, Lady Thatcher was blamed for poverty and unemployment in Britain. Seamlessly this switched to blame for the culture of shameless affluence as the emerging class of yuppies flaunted their new-found wealth. She was deemed to be at fault in both cases.The fallacy of Thatcher's blame' is committed when blame is attached no matter what outcome ensues. The fallacy occurs because the evidence is irrelevant when the determination of guilt precedes the outcome of their actions. Indeed, the point about 'Thatcher's blame' is that it covers all the conceivable outcomes.
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