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Loading... The Art of Being Right (annotated): The perfect guide to spotting bullshit, avoiding cheap tricks and winning argumentsby Arthur Schopenhauer
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Originally published in 1831, Polish-born German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's The Art of Being Right is the perfect guide to spotting bullshit, avoiding cheap tricks, and winning arguments. As described by the author, "being right doesn't mean you're gonna win," a point which is increasingly evident in our age of disinformation and fake news. With the The Art of Being Right, we now know why. It is the ultimate guide to spotting the many different ways in which people attempt (and often succeed) at winning over a crowd, rather than arguing the point at hand. The problem, writes Schopenhauer, is not only that people "speak before they think," but that despite the desire to get to the bottom of things, people would rather save face than admit they are wrong, resorting to cheap take tactics that derail the argument. One example is the tendency for people to "become personal, insulting and rude," a tactic which is best exemplified by former U.S. President Donald Trump. For Schopenhauer, arguments are not, for the most part, driven by logic, but by dialectic--what he refers to as "the art of intellectual fencing."Thus, had Schopenhauer been around to offer Biden some sage advice during the 2020 presidential debate, it may have been to only dispute with those whom you know to "possess sufficient intelligence and self-respect not to advance absurdities; to appeal to reason and not to authority ... to cherish truth, to be willing to accept reason even from an opponent, and to be just enough to bear being proved to be in the wrong, should truth lie with him. From this it follows that scarcely one man in a hundred is worth your disputing with him. You may let the remainder say what they please, for every one is at liberty to be a fool."Known for his writing on aesthetics, morality, and psychology, it was a staple ingredient in the formation of some of history's most critical minds, including that of Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Schrödinger, and Albert Einstein. In this book, the celebrated philosopher provides thirty-eight simple methods that will make your arguments more convincing and help you avoid having the wool pulled over your eyes. No library descriptions found. |
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