Cannavo, Salvator. Think to Win. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998. Lesser sense reasoning is that used to boost one’s argument and support one’s beliefs. Greater sense reasoning is that used to discover truth. Although the title of this book suggests that it is concerned with lesser sense arguments, its actual mission is to help people think better—thus, a greater sense logic book.
Capaldi, Nicholas. The Art of Deception. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1987. The work is uneven and lacks focus and definitely misnamed. Without having a background in logic, I think some of the author’s points would have passed me by and others probably would have been just downright confusing. One wonders about a book on the art of deception deceiving people to believe that that is what it is about when it is really about clear thinking and logic.
Crusius, Timothy, and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2000. Most texts on the subject are too formalistic and p. 342 prescriptive, but this brief and effective rhetoric is designed to help people plan and deliver their arguments. Particularly important is the analysis of pictures and the deconstruction of visual arguments.
Damer, T. Edward. Attacking Faulty Reasoning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001. One of the best books on the subject. More than sixty fallacies are attacked according to general principles of clear thinking. Particularly interesting is the discussion of the answers to the exercises.
Flew, Anthony. How to Think Straight. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1998. A good introduction to critical thinking by an expert in the field.
Russo, J. Edward, and Paul J. H. Schoemaker. Decision Traps. New York: Doubleday, 1989. Light reading and a little simple and simplistic but worth a look for those interested in direct applications of clear thinking to practical problems and business decisions.
Skyrms, Brian. Choice and Chance: An Introduction to Inductive Logic. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2000. This is a good introduction to logic, both inductive and, to a lesser extent, deductive. It probably serves better as a textbook than as an aid to individual learning, but under the proper conditions and with the proper reader, it could serve both. I like it best when it explains truth tables (chap. 1) and the rules of the calculus of probability (chap. 6). Particularly interesting are the practical applications in the exercises, especially in cards, dice playing, and horse racing.
St. Aubyn, Giles. The Art of Argument. New York: Emerson Books, 1962. This is a little book, but does it pack a wallop! Especially interesting is the appendix on the “Good Old Days” and how a political speech may be taken to task for its errors in thinking.
Groupthink
Janis, Irving L. Groupthink, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982. This classic of social psychology is based on the idea that people in groups might think differently (and by implication less well) than they would have thought as individuals on the same issue. Most of the evidence in this book supports the idea that group thinking, like thinking in general, goes awry when there is a failure to evaluate all the available evidence for relevance and adequacy.
Lewis, James R. Doomsday Prophecies. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000. Wonderful documentation of the outer reaches of sanity in some of the most nefarious doomsday cults, including the Happy Hookers for Jesus, Heaven’s Gate, AUM Shinrikyo, and Millerites (Adventists).
Logic And Reason Books Not For The Faint Of Heart
p. 343 Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Classics, 1976. This little book has had an enormous impact on moral philosophy, particularly in the West. It may surprise you to know that Aristotle regarded ethics as a practical, not a theoretical, science.
Langer, Susanne K. An Introduction to Symbolic Logic. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1937. Symbolic logic is an instrument of exact thought, both analytic and constructive; its mission is not only to validate scientific methods but also to clarify the semantic confusions that beset the human mind. This book is probably the clearest book ever written on symbolic logic, and no special knowledge is needed to understand it. Read the chapter on the assumptions of the Principia Mathematica before you attack the Principia directly.
Smullyan, Raymond M. First-Order Logic. New York: Dover, 1995. The work is self-contained and serves as an introduction to quantification theory and analytic methods. The material on trees is difficult but necessary for an understanding of the tableau method.
Thomas Aquinas, Saint. On Laws, Morality, and Politics, edited by William P. Baumgarth and Richard J. Regan, SJ. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002. Absolutely brilliant in form and content, this work clearly shows Saint Thomas a master of logic and reasoned argument.
Whitehead, Alfred North, and Bertrand Russell. Principia Mathematica. 1910. Reprint, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. This great three-volume work is deservedly the most famous ever written on the foundations of mathematics. It aims to deduce all the fundamental propositions from a small number of logical premises and primitive ideas to prove that mathematics is a development of logic.
Worth A Look For Those With Inquiring Minds
Crews, Frederick. Postmodern Pooh. New York: North Point Press, 2001. Should be required reading for anybody who wants to understand the absurdity of culture-theory ideas and the damage they inflict. The logic is brilliant and fun.
Howard, Philip K. The Death of Common Sense. New York: Random House, 1994. How law and its applications often results in misadventure and irrational actions. Multiple examples prove that government often acts like some extraterrestrial power, not an institution that exists to serve us, and p. 344 almost never deals with real-life problems in a way that reflects an understanding of the reality.
Kelly, Fred C. Why You Win or Lose: The Psychology of Speculation. 1930. Reprint, Wells, VT: Fraser, 1962. The logic and psychology of stock market speculation in a 177-page nutshell. Vanity, greed, wishful thinking, neglect of reality, and the will to believe are the major reasons that you lose.
Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2001. The public is repeatedly duped, and this book explains how and why. Want to know why the Dow in October of 1929 went from 381 points to 41? Want to know what happened in the tulip mania and the South Sea Bubble? Human nature never changes. Here are the details—read ’em and weep.
Paulos, John Allen. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences. New York: Vintage, 1990. This entertaining book argues that our inability to deal rationally with numbers or with probabilities results in misinformed government policies, confused personal decisions, and an increased susceptibility to pseudosciences of all kinds. Innumeracy is the mathematical counterpart of illiteracy, another disease that also ravages our technological society.
Quinn, Daniel, and Tom Whalen. A Newcomer’s Guide to the Afterlife. New York: Bantam Books, 1997. This interesting book is a discussion of, and in many cases a refutation of, the religious logic of an afterlife. Many of the implications of living forever are addressed with wry wit and intelligent thinking, leaving a pretty dim view of the traditional concept of life after death.
Salk, Jonas. Anatomy of Reality. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. The book is a part of the Convergence series that looks at the deep philosophical and scientific issues of our time. Salk has come up with the general idea of how nature works, and he seems to be on the right track.
Santoro, Victor. The Rip-Off Book. Port Townsend, WA: Loompanic Unlimited, 1984. This book outlines the basic principles of fraud and gives a good picture of how fraud artists bilk the public. It should be required reading in every high school economics course.
Schiffman, Nathaniel. Abracadabra! Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997. Excellent in telling how the human mind is so easily deceived by spatial and time misdirections.
Schulte, Fred. Fleeced! Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995. This is an excellent account of telemarketing rip-offs and how to avoid them. Too bad this book has not had a much wider readership—it might have prev
ented some of the great frauds of our time.
Sommerville, C. John. How the News Makes Us Dumb. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999. Beautiful discussion of the topic and proof of his point by showing the contradictions in the daily flow of so-called news.
Lewis Carroll And The Alice Books
p. 345 Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition. Introduction and notes by John Tenniel. Edited by Martin Gardner. New York: Norton, 2000. Alice was written for a British audience of another century. To fully capture its full wit and wisdom, we need to know a great many things that are not part of the text. Read this after you have read about the life and times of Alice and her creator by Stephanie Lovett Stoffel, referenced below.
——. The Hunting of the Snark. 1876. Reprint, London: Chatto and Windus, 1969. “The bowspirit got mixed with the rudder sometimes.” Want to read real Carrollian nonsense? Read this.
——. The Political Pamphlets and Letters of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Related Pieces. New York: Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 2001. These are the political pamphlets and letters of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), compiled and annotated by Francine F. Abeles. We see in Carroll’s letters and pamphlets his inventive mind at work. Particularly interesting are the discussions of how to place winning horse racing bets and his plea for a more intelligent system of voting and election.
——. Symbolic Logic and the Game of Logic. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1958. Two books in one, and both are great treats. His solutions to the syllogisms by using visual methods and his profound knowledge of category theory deserve to be better known. Carroll’s symbolic logic is a way of expressing logic in unique diagrams of propositions and conclusions.
Fisher, John. The Magic of Lewis Carroll. London: Nelson, 1973. A mass of logic and mathematical games lies behind the scenes in the Alice books. Some of these come out here in the full light of brilliant illustrations.
Rackin, Donald. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass: Nonsense, Sense, and Meaning. New York: Twayne, 1991. Some of the discussion is itself nonsense, but it is an interesting demonstration of how far one can get carried away.
Stoffel, Stephanie Lovett. Lewis Carroll in Wonderland: The Life and Times of Alice and Her Creator. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1997. Beautifully illustrated handbook about Carroll and friends by a scholar and collector who works for the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Start here if you want a bird’s-eye view of Carroll.
Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
A
p. 347 Abbott, William “Bud,” 295
absolute prediction, 51
absolute statements, truth of, 47
absolute truth, 27, 31, 34
abstract statements, 125, 315
ACLU. See American Civil Liberties Union
Adams, Douglas, 321
Adelphia Communications Corporation, 21, 231-32
adequate evidence. See evidence
Adobe Systems Inc., 122-23
advertising, 73-76, 169, 221
tied association, 73, 75, 238-39
See also mass media
affirmative, particular, 77
affirming the consequent, 303-304
aggression, 178-79
Albright, Madeleine, 252
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll), 143, 239-40, 241, 244-46, 251, 266, 285-329, 331
alternative solutions, 58
Amazon.com, Inc., 62
ambiguous wording. See words
American Civil Liberties Union, 259
American Medical Association, 165
amphiboly. See words
Anabasis (Xenophon), 13, 92
analogical matrix, 306
analogies
arguments by analogy, 163
false analogies, 145-76, 281, 289, 290
aggressors with six-letter names as example, 147-48
in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 315
domino effect, 145-46
farm aid program as example, 152
French in World War II as example, 148-49
full bladder as example, 155-56
gay marriage as example, 147
ship of state as example, 159
slogans, 163
Tourette’s syndrome as example, 154
Vietnam War as example, 145-47
war on drugs as example, 167
historical, 173
language, 153
p. 348 men and machine analogies, 156-61, 173
brain and clocks as example, 162
brain and computer as example, 160-61
ship of state as example, 157-59
analysis
content analysis, 121
robbery as example, 123-25
State of Union messages as example, 125
intelligent analysis, 115
Andersen, Hans Christian, 331
Angela’s Ashes (McCourt), 53
Angell, Marcia, 114
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), 109-10
Annenberg Foundation, 218n1
Apologeticus (Tertullian), 28
Applewhite, Marshall Herff, 216-17
a priori. See deductive logic
Aquinas, Thomas, 86
Arafat, Yasser, 267
Archimedes, 65
arguments, 27, 333
by analogy, 163
arguing off the point, 206, 207, 251, 325
argumentum ad baculum, 206-207
argumentum ad hominem, 206, 280
in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 301
Tourette’s syndrome as example, 153-56
argumentum ad ignorantiam
existence of God as example, 98-99
argumentum ad populum, 208
irrelevant evidence, 253-54
argumentum ad verecundiam, 63-64, 206, 292
See also authority figures
Aristotle, 87
Armstrong, Edwin, 307
Arthur Andersen (company), 114-15, 117, 204-205
Asia Global Crossing, 120-21
assertions, 58, 75, 98, 111, 297, 301
as irrelevant evidence, 253, 262
positive, 296
unsubstantiated, 155, 195
war on drugs as example, 165
and use of the word is, 100
See also begging the question
association and thought, 37-38, 39
association in time. See post hoc, propter hoc
assumptions, unwarranted. See unwarranted assumptions
AT&T Corporation, 62-63
Athenia (ship), 171
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (movie), 102
authority figures, 63
advertising use of, 73-74
battleships sunk by planes example, 66
biased authority, 61-63
and covert meanings, 116
erroneous attribution of authority, 69
iron boats and British admiralty as example, 60-61, 63-64, 67-68
as irrelevant evidence, 251-53, 280-81
and overgeneralization, 64
and prestige in another field, 61, 80
See also argumentum ad verecundiam
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
B
Bacon, Francis, 34
badger game. See fraud and deception
p. 349 bait-and-switch. See fraud and deception
Baker, Newton, 66
Baring, Francis, 60
Battle of Balaklava, 81
Battle of Zama, 27
Baylor University, 258
Bay of Pigs, 218n1
beard, fallacy of. See fallacy
Bedazzled (Hurley), 185
begging the question, 195, 237-47
in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 239-40, 286, 298
examples of, 242-45
existence of God as example, 239
irrelevant evidence, 262, 281
war on drugs as example, 168-69, 173
See also assertions
beliefs, passionately held, 196
Bergman, Ingrid, 234
biased authority. See authority figures
Big Brother, 166
bin Laden, Osama, 48, 52
black-and-white thinking, 54, 80, 262
in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 290
avoidance of, 57-58
Nazi treatment of Jews as example, 54-55
blanket assurances, 47, 49, 52
Blitzkrieg, 148
block in a fraud, 222, 224, 225, 226, 236
Bo. See Applewhite, Marshall Herff
Boston Post, 228
Boxer, Barbara, 61
Boyer, Charles, 234
brain size comparison, 27, 199
bribes, 256
Bristol-Myers Squibb, 116
British Medical Society, 135
broadcast definitions. See definitions
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 35-36
Brothers Grimm, 331
Buddha, 21
Buffet, Warren, 115
Bundy, McGeorge, 212
Bunsby, Jack, 172, 176n2
Bush, George W., 48, 52, 95-96, 100, 151-52, 172
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
C
Capone, Al, 229
Carroll, Lewis, 239, 285-329
Carson, John, 307
Casablanca (movie), 225
case of N. See size of sample
Castle, The (Kafka), 311, 326-27
Castro, Fidel, 213
categorical syllogisms, 77
Catholic Church, 28
causal factors, 146-47
causal fallacies. See fallacy
cause-and-effect association. See post hoc, propter hoc
Central Intelligence Agency, 212-13
certainty, quest for, 196
chain-letter scams. See fraud and deception
change, dislike of. See resistance to change
Charge of the Light Brigade, 80-81
cheerleading, 170
Cheshire Cat, 143, 294, 299-302, 304-306
Truth, Knowledge, or Just Plain Bull: How to tell the difference Page 41
