Summer Reading Assignment: Thank You for Arguing The introduction of Thank You for Arguing covers a brief history of rhetoric, introducing its beginnings in ancient Greece and its impact on Roman orators. Jay Heinrichs details the effect of rhetoric on America’s founders, the principles used in the making of the Bible and the Constitution, and how it inspired Shakespeare and Cicero, as well as how rhetoric has faded since the 1800s. Heinrichs declares his purpose for writing Thank You for Arguing as to “lead you through this ill-known world of argument…to use logic as a convincing tool, smacking down fallacies and building airtight assertions” (Heinrichs 5). Heinrichs hooks his audience by using the very thing he teaches about: rhetoric.
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Heinrichs boiled the common fallacies’ causes down to three: bad proofs, bad conclusion, and a disconnect between the proof and the conclusion; and organized them to act as the seven (logical) deadly sins, the alluring ways that people cheat, steal, and lie. “False comparison (lumping examples into the wrong categories), bad example, …ignorance as proof (asserting that the lack of examples proves something), ...the false choice: offering just two choices when more are actually available, the tautology (in which the proof and the conclusion are identical), the red herring, or the wrong ending (in which the proof fails to lead to the conclusion)” (Heinrichs 146). “The purpose of argument is to be persuasive, not “correct”’ (Heinrichs 165). The fundamental point to rhetoric defense is remembering that an arguments’ goal is not to win, and the only rule of arguing is “Never argue the inarguable. In other words, don’t block the argument” (Heinrichs 167). Heinrichs also discusses seven rhetorical out-of-bounds topics including switching tenses away from the future, humiliation, innuendo, and threats, which all make deliberative argument impossible. Introducing the ethos technique yet again, Heinrichs explains its basic principles on page 182 as disinterest, virtue, and practical wisdom. Elaborating on ethos techniques, Heinrichs explains that it is used most in branding and within the lingo of salespeople and advertisers in order to convince you to buy something you most likely don’t want or need. The chapter wraps up by explaining how to access a person’s practical wisdom, using the “that depends” filter to determine if the persuader has your best interests at heart or just pitching a sale, the comparable experience to decide whether the persuader got their information from using the product themselves
In …show more content…
Heinrichs boiled the common fallacies’ causes down to three: bad proofs, bad conclusion, and a disconnect between the proof and the conclusion; and organized them to act as the seven (logical) deadly sins, the alluring ways that people cheat, steal, and lie. “False comparison (lumping examples into the wrong categories), bad example, …ignorance as proof (asserting that the lack of examples proves something), ...the false choice: offering just two choices when more are actually available, the tautology (in which the proof and the conclusion are identical), the red herring, or the wrong ending (in which the proof fails to lead to the conclusion)” (Heinrichs 146). “The purpose of argument is to be persuasive, not “correct”’ (Heinrichs 165). The fundamental point to rhetoric defense is remembering that an arguments’ goal is not to win, and the only rule of arguing is “Never argue the inarguable. In other words, don’t block the argument” (Heinrichs 167). Heinrichs also discusses seven rhetorical out-of-bounds topics including switching tenses away from the future, humiliation, innuendo, and threats, which all make deliberative argument impossible. Introducing the ethos technique yet again, Heinrichs explains its basic principles on page 182 as disinterest, virtue, and practical wisdom. Elaborating on ethos techniques, Heinrichs explains that it is used most in branding and within the lingo of salespeople and advertisers in order to convince you to buy something you most likely don’t want or need. The chapter wraps up by explaining how to access a person’s practical wisdom, using the “that depends” filter to determine if the persuader has your best interests at heart or just pitching a sale, the comparable experience to decide whether the persuader got their information from using the product themselves