Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent. I've read and seen DVD's on proper arguments
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2018
Apparently, LaBossiere self-published this book, so grammatical errors lie about. For example, page 5: "the premises do not provided enough support". Starting on page 4, "Fallacies and Arguments" is almost a word-for-word and example-for-example repetition of the "Introduction" starting on page 1. LaBossiere should at least have a friend comment on the text.
Excellent. I've read and seen DVD's on proper arguments, but I have difficulty following conversations and politics which lack proper arguments. This book concisely (125 pages) goes through those gimmicks of speech. Other books often give one boring/trivial example, while LaBossiere usually gives three. While describing a fallacy, he'll contrast it with similar fallacies -- enlightening. I like his continuing distinction between "rational reason to believe" (evidence) and "prudential reason to believe" (motivation). His longest entry is "Appeal to Authority" where he pins down an authority with six half-page essentials, then gives several wonderful sentences like "expertise of a person does not actually determine whether the claim is true of false." For some fallacies, he also mentions their usefulness; eg, in "Appeal to Emotion" he says "Without an appeal to peoples' emotions, it is often difficult to get them to take action or to perform at their best." I intend to read this book slowly at least one more time so that hearing a fallacy FLASHES the type of fallacy in my mind.
