As various thought fallacies and flawed arguments are constantly being exposed, used, debunked or otherwise referenced during our ethics discussions and debates—the Ethics Alarms compendium is here––this looked like something readers would enjoy. I probably should dedicate this post to former blog Commenter of the Year tgt, in appreciation for his ending—maybe just briefly, we shall see—his latest sabbatical with a flurry of 70 comments while I was lecturing in Newport last week. I didn’t have time to properly engage him or even read all the comments, but he seemed in characteristic form.
Tgt loves the fallacies and delights in slapping them down whenever they occur. His favorite is “No True Scotsman.” I immediately thought of him when I stumbled upon “An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments” by the multi-talented Ali Almossawi. Tgt’s pet fallacy is here, as well as ad hominem, appeals to authority, the straw man, equivocation and others, some under different names than those I am used to. I haven’t read it carefully: there may be one or two that needs to be added to the Ethics Alarms list.
This is a well-researched and written exposition of some major fallacies with lovely illustrations, presented like a vintage children’s book. Someone should actually publish a children’s book like this: I would have been grateful for one when my son was a boy, or when I was a boy. I’m grateful for this now.
You can find this amazing work of art, ethics, rhetoric and logic here. I’ve already sent the link around to many friends, young and old, and you may want to do the same.
Ethics Alarms 
Thank you for pointing the way to this book. The link practically gives the book away in that you can see all the drawings, which are fantastic, and read the text for each illustration. I love books like this, so even though I could read it online, I still bought it and can’t wait to get it. This is a book where one reading won’t do. Moreover, it would make a great bathroom book, not that I plan to put it there.
Uh lets be clear, tgt uses the fallacies just as if not more than he claims others use them.
He still loves them, and knows them well.
We will agree.
He loves them.
Ahhh. You miss him too.
I neither miss nor don’t miss him. Though he had usefulness as a foil to put on display every irrational and fallacious argument the Left can conjure up, giving rational individuals an opportunity to slam them back down, I can’t say I miss it when silly and error-rife arguments seeking to justify the objectives of the Left aren’t being foisted on malleable ears.
But since those nonsense ideas still need to be heard, it is useful that others have stepped into the role.
“Be generous, Mr. Spade!”
I try to be generous but when the policies pushed by the left and advocated by leftists are adverse to American values and concepts of Liberty, I don’t have a ton of patience.
Call it a character flaw.
Mine, too, has grown rather thin as of late.
Texans. So sentimental.
The smell of gunsmoke does that to us!
I had to get this and I WILL use it to create some great lessons. I love books that lead to great discussions.
That… Is awesome! It’s now in my “favorites” folder. I also want the hardcover version; not to read, but to bludgeon to death people who torture me with logical fallacies and flawed arguments.
“AIBoBA” =
best supplement to Ethics Alarms content and commentary since tgt!
What a wonderful book, thank you.
I would add this.
“right side of history”
I hadn’t really heard that until Obama started trotting it out, and now it’s everywhere.
I’d say that’s an appeal to false authority — “history” as some objective force that has a right side and a wrong side (surprise! I’m on the right side, and you’re not) — with a bonus element of ad hominem thrown in.
It is awfully similar to appeal to tradition.
Hmmm…yes, it is.
You could also say it’s a bandwagon fallacy. History is moving this way…you don’t want to be left out, do you?
That’s a great little book (and a great website). Bookmarked. Another site that I’ve used is yourlogicalfallacyis.com. In addition to the web page, it offers a pdf for download and printing; I have one taped to the wall next to my computer.
Rhetorical logic should be a mandatory subject in school — so of course it’s not.
Probably the most valuable class I ever had was 9th grade English at Kennedy Jr. High, where we diagrammed sentences, read poetry (and listened to Iron Maiden), were repeatedly tested on common Greek and Latin roots, wrote creative essays, and dissected ads to find the rhetorical fallacies and manipulations embedded in them. I loved that class. The rhetoric/composition students in my graduate program could have learned some useful thinking skills in there (but if they had, they probably wouldn’t have wound up as rhet/comp Marxists).
Jack. Did my last post come through, or was it dustbinned?
I’ll check. It wasn’t dustbinned my me..
Just checked. Missing. Not in spam, and not anywhere else. I’m sorry, Al.
I’ll try again:
According to pronouncements above, the Leftists are advocating policies “adverse to human values and concepts of Liberty” by “foisting on malleable ears” arguments that are “irrational,” “fallacious,” “silly” and “error-ridden.”
There was a recurring line on the “Laugh-in” show, spoken in all earnestness: “I didn’t know that!” It fits here.
The biggest obstacle facing the country today, IMHO, is our reluctance to engage in honest, face-to-face discussion about our problems. “Those bastards don’t think straight” is, shall we say, an impediment to thoughtful discourse. Ask the members of Congress.
Uh huh. Been in hundreds of these discussions. Been quite honest. Sorry, that which you highlight in quotes to lampoon are actually well earned labels. Sorry it bothers you.
What about when the bastards don’t think straight? For example, I don’t think the pro-illegal immigrant argument has any legal, ethics, rational or practical legitimacy at all. Bad arguments should be called bad arguments. Fake facts should be called fake, and people who keep repeating them should be condemned in accurate and fair terms. Trayvon Martin was not stalked, hunted or murdered. George Zimmerman is not a racist. Mike Brown attacked Darren Wilson, who shot in self-defense. ISIS is a radical Islamic terrorist group. Facts matter, and those who intentionally misrepresent them or who keep chanting things even when they know the facts don’t support them should not be coddled or deferred to.