“When Aristotle speaks of Dialectic, we must… define it as “the art of getting the best of it in a dispute,” in which, unquestionably, the safest plan is to be in the right to begin with; but this in itself is not enough in the existing disposition of mankind, and, on the other hand, with the weakness of the human intellect, it is not altogether necessary.” [Schopenhauer, “The Art of Controversy” (1896)]
Should we expect truth to prevail simply because it’s right? Once we grow past a certain age, probably not; though as we’ll see when we study Plato and Kant, society would be untenable (at least as we know it) if everyone accepted lying or non-truth-telling as the default for human communication. We simply have to value truth and rightness on some level – even as we disagree about what the terms mean and how they apply to life’s specificities, and even as we’re inundated by messages from people who subordinate a concern for truth to their own (personal, political, profit-motivated) need to persuade us.
So how do we arm ourselves against the tricks of persuasion? Step one, understand the tricks. To that end, the following sites provide information on fallacies. Before you delve in, note that authors may use different names for certain fallacies and may categorize them in various taxonomies. Also, look at the sheer number. You begin to appreciate why some feel the truth too often gets lost in all that rhetoric.
Should we expect truth to prevail simply because it’s right? Once we grow past a certain age, probably not; though as we’ll see when we study Plato and Kant, society would be untenable (at least as we know it) if everyone accepted lying or non-truth-telling as the default for human communication. We simply have to value truth and rightness on some level – even as we disagree about what the terms mean and how they apply to life’s specificities, and even as we’re inundated by messages from people who subordinate a concern for truth to their own (personal, political, profit-motivated) need to persuade us.
So how do we arm ourselves against the tricks of persuasion? Step one, understand the tricks. To that end, the following sites provide information on fallacies. Before you delve in, note that authors may use different names for certain fallacies and may categorize them in various taxonomies. Also, look at the sheer number. You begin to appreciate why some feel the truth too often gets lost in all that rhetoric.
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