The Art Of Mental Trickery Pdf

Probably a book I should read once a year - a very insightful and short read that lists (and explains) all the ways one can be deceived via fallacies. After reading the book I found myself critiquing the nightly newscast as I listened to the lines they were reading as part of the broadcast. The last section of the book, and perhaps the best part, has several speeches. The practical exercise is to read the speech and identify the fallacies being employed. Very interesting and a bit disturbing. Ke Probably a book I should read once a year - a very insightful and short read that lists (and explains) all the ways one can be deceived via fallacies.

The Thinker’s Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation © 2004 Foundation for Critical Thinking www.criticalthinking.org To understand the human mind, understand self-deception. Anon The word ‘fallacy’ derives from two Latin words, fallax (“deceptive”) and fallere (“to deceive”). The Thinker's Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation - Richard Paul, Linda Elder. A former producer of The Diane Rehm Show, Richard Paul is.

After reading the book I found myself critiquing the nightly newscast as I listened to the lines they were reading as part of the broadcast. The last section of the book, and perhaps the best part, has several speeches. The practical exercise is to read the speech and identify the fallacies being employed.

Very interesting and a bit disturbing. Key passages are below: - Every culture and society sees itself as special and as justified in all of its basic beliefs and practices. - Nations often fail to act successfully because their leaders are caught up in their own unrealistic descriptions of the world (and of their enemies).. We must be willing to question our own generalizations as well as the generalizations of others.

- Fallacies are therefore stratagems for gaining influence, advantage, and power (over the sheep of society). - People are often ready to accept a false dilemma because few feel comfortable with complexity and nuanced distinctions. They like sweeping absolutes. They want clear and simple choices. - Most people are not sophisticated. Interheart Study Pdf.

- People are always receptive to flattery. “The over-whelming preponderance of people have not freely decided what to believe, but, rather, have been socially conditioned (indoctrinated) into their beliefs. They are unreflective thinkers. Their minds are products of social and personal forces they neither understand, control, nor concern themselves with. Their personal beliefs are often based in prejudices. Their thinking is largely comprised of stereotypes, caricatures, oversimplifications, sweeping generalizations, illusions, delusions, rationalizations, false dilemmas, and begged questions. Their motivations are often traceable to irrational fears and attachments, personal vanity and envy, intellectual arrogance and simple-mindedness.