An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments: Learn the Lost Art of Making Sense Hardcover – Illustrated, September 23, 2014

In the Internet age, we really need to be very careful re any information we imbibe. With every bit of news out there having a slant towards a particular agenda, and every comment section a buzzing hive of trolls, "Bad Arguments" helps prepare everyone willing, with a pleasant read that explains logic fallacies in a simple straightforward way, with great illustrations. ESSENTIAL.

Ali Almossawi’s Bad Arguments is exactly the kind of book more people should keep at hand. In a few pages 20 different logical fallacies are identified and clarified. As something of a freebie there is a short glossary appended.I never quite understood ‘post hoc, propter hoc’. I only thought I understood ‘slippery slope’. New to me were the terms that address things like 'not a cause for a cause’ or ‘composition and division’.Having read this slender book I cannot claim to have mastered these terms, nor will I always recognize them in the wild. Still for a book of barely 50 pages; almost ½ given to illustrative cartoons, the learning experience is efficient.A few words about the illustrations. For all their childlike appeal each one is well captioned to reinforce the point of the explanation.This is one time I have to question the negative reviews. Too many are obviously driven by a demand for political purity that has nothing to do with the total content of the book. A few other complain that the logic is wrong – I disagree. Others are of the opinion that the discussion is too shallow. This is not a text book.Unless you are a serious student of logical argument, Bad Argument may be the only reference you will ever need. A light hearted book with the ability to seriously improve your thinking, speaking and listening.

If you want a book of amazing illustrations of themed by logical fallacies, then buy this book. If you need a guide, look below for rwo really good books I bought from Amazon.The illustrations are more important. I realized that extensive descriptions were not the purpose. This is an adult-level book though. Granted, this book may have started as a more cohesive and coherent concept, but the book has a confusing identity.The two books below I bought from Amazon. They are amazingly good introductory texts for many fallacies—way more fallacies than ever needed.Logically Fallacious: The Ultimate Collection of Over 300 Logical Fallacies (Academic Edition)Mastering Logical Fallacies: The Definitive Guide to Flawless Rhetoric and Bulletproof Logic

This book gives very clear examples of bad argumentation with helpful illustrations of cute animals. I gave a high rating because the book manages to deal with the very serious topic of argumentation with clear descriptions and high-quality artwork to exemplify the main principles. I think most people are likely to learn about one mistake or another even if they are somewhat familiar with most of the discussed fallacies. Argumentative mistakes are very easy to make and I suspect that having them clearly explained, as in this book, will be helpful for anyone wanting to improve their thinking.

I felt that not on only was this book useful, but it is necessary. I found it entertaining and informative.However I can't give it a full 4 or 5 stars because I find it lacking. Where do I find it lacking?1) There isn't much detail at most each fallacy gets two pages.2) Some fallacies have so little detail in the explanation that I found myself saying, "Ummm Didn't he cover this fallacy before?"3) There are references to some widely accepted legitimate arguments, but they are usually crammed into a discussion of a fallacy (note maximum of two pages) so they aren't well discussed (i.e. modus ponens).4. I enjoyed the illustrations, but it was sometimes difficult to understand exactly how they illustrated a given concept.For a quick review of common false arguments, this is nice, but for someone who wants an introduction to fallacies (Which it does claim to be), It would be nice if it were longer and better detailed, that the fallacies that are similar would be differentiated, and a long introductory section on how to create GOOD arguments were included that is written in a similar fashion.If you know how to construct a good argument, it is much easier to see how these arguments are false.

This book overall is going to honestly be your best friend in the war on the internet if you are a scrub and don't know what you're doing or how to form rational thoughts. That's not to say that I am some master of something as arbitrary as internet arguments, but no joke this book will bolster your ability to spot and see through deception or just point out faulty logic in general.It's like a magazine in Fallout: New Vegas. No joke. You can look, see the page, see the error and see if it follows through with the erroneous belief presented.The illustrations are great. The examples are good. Like seriously, I have no faults for this book. If you want to get it as a gag gift for your friend who gets madder than heck on the internet because he's always losing, this might be the thing to help him. Unless you know, you don't want him trying to pull this level of effort on you. In which case, buy this book yourself AND COUNTER ARGUE HIM LIKE AN EPISODE OF YU GI OH WITH LOGIC AS YOUR DECK AND THE HEART OF THE CARDS JUST BEING YOUR HEART YO.