The Art of Argument
An Introduction to the Informal Fallacies
Description:... Junior high aged students will argue (and sometimes quarrel), but they won't argue well without good training.The Art of Argument was designed to teach the argumentative adolescent how to reason with clarity, relevance and purpose at at time when he has a penchant for the "why" and "how" over the "what" and "when." In The Art of Argument, students study those common fallacies that plague faulty reasoning that so commonly characterizes contemporary thinking and writing. We regard the mastery of informal logic (the logical fallacies) as a "paradigm" subject by which we evaluate, assess and learn other subjects--it is a sharp knife with which we can carve and shape all manner of wood.Mastery of informal logic is a requisite skill for mastering other subjects. As a fundamental text in the dialectic curriculum, The Art of Argument will impart to students the skills needed to craft accurate statements and identify the flawed arguments and thinking found so frequently in editorials, commercials, newspapers, journals and every other media. This text comes in a workbook format with clear explanations and many examples to insure understanding and mastery.The text aims at the practical application of the informal fallacies through an analysis of current social and political issues, which are discussed and evaluated. This practical application should insure that students continue to evaluate arguments, detect fallacies and reason well long after the course is completed. Students master 40 fallacies (such as begging the question, the straw man, ad hominen, et al) by studying many pertinent examples of them. The text features a variety of: Dialogues Worksheets Real-world Applications Dialectic Discussions Tests The Art of Argument begins with simple definitions and explanations and features frequent teaching by means of witty dialogues featuring Socrates and his American friend Tiffany. Students completing this text should be able to apply their logical skills in every other subject by detecting fallacies in others while avoiding such fallacies themselves. This text is a cornerstone useful for every other subject your student tackles."
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