Thinking books · Communication & persuasion · Jay Heinrichs, 2007
Thank You for Arguing — the big ideas
Classical rhetoric made usable, with modern examples.
Free — no account needed to read
The big ideas
The three appeals — character, emotion and logic — are separable, and noticing which one is actually moving you is a defensive skill as much as a persuasive one.
Arguments about the past assign blame, about the present assign values, and about the future decide what to do. Most unproductive arguments are two people in different tenses.
The goal of an argument can be to win, to change a mind, or to reach a decision, and these require different moves. Choosing which you are in is the first step.
Practise it — no need to have read it
Recall an argument that went nowhere. Work out which tense each person was in — past, present or future.
A hint: Moving the conversation to the future tense is often the whole fix.
Where it shows up in real life
- Team disagreements
- Persuading a decision-maker
- Noticing when you are being persuaded
Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.
Thinking methods from this book
- Character, emotion, logic — The three appeals, and noticing which one is actually doing the work on you.
The thinking it builds
- Argumentation — Build and evaluate arguments
- Questioning — Ask better questions