Thinking books · Logic & argumentation · Madsen Pirie, 2006
How to Win Every Argument — the big ideas
A catalogue of fallacies, written partly as a manual for using them — which is the point.
Free — no account needed to read
The big ideas
Its mischievous framing is instructive: seeing how a fallacy would be deployed deliberately makes it far easier to spot when it is used on you.
It covers the rhetorical tricks textbooks skip — shifting ground, the loaded question, false precision, the appeal to fatigue.
The honest reading is defensive. Using these deliberately wins arguments and loses the thing arguments are for.
Practise it — no need to have read it
Take a position you disagree with. Write the most effective bad argument someone could make for it, then write what you would say to answer that.
A hint: This trains recognition. It is not a licence.
Where it shows up in real life
- Preparing for a difficult meeting
- Spotting manipulation
- Debate practice
Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.
The thinking it builds
- Argumentation — Build and evaluate arguments
- Critical Thinking — Evaluate claims and evidence