Classic work once again available. Offers step-by-step guidelines for identifying and analyzing arguments. It outlines a theory of good argument to use for purposes of evaluating and constructing arguments. It contains guidelines for constructing arguments and for preparing and writing essays or briefs. Special methods for interpreting and assessing longer arguments are provided. It gives guidelines to help filter out the more reliable information from newspapers and television news. Offers an array of devices to deal with the tricks and deceits of so much of today's advertising. Helps students improve their ability to recognize, interpret, and evaluate arguments and to formulate clear, well-organized arguments themselves. Secondary and college students, debate coaches, classroom instructors, community active people.

Shows you how to make tough-minded survival decisions. It's a book you can't afford to live without.

What is the relationship between democracy and critical thinking? What must a citizen in a democracy know to make the word democracy meaningful? In A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense, historian and educator Normand Baillargeon provides readers with the tools to see through the spin and jargon of everyday politics and news reporting in order to decide for themselves what is at stake and how to ask the necessary questions to protect themselves from the manipulations of the government and the media. Whether the issue be the call to what we’re told will be a bloodless war, the "debate" around Intelligent Design, or the meaning of a military expenditure, Baillargeon teaches readers to evaluate information and sort fact from official and media spin.

"If I have learned anything in ten years of formal debating, it is that arguments are no different: without a good understanding of the rules and tactics, you are likely to do poorly and be beaten."—HENRY ZHANG, President of the Yale Debate Association Your argument is valid and you know it; yet once again you find yourself leaving a debate feeling defeated and embarrassed. The matter is only made worse when you realize that your defeat came at the hands of someone's abuse of logic—and that with the right skills you could have won the argument. The ability to recognize logical fallacies when they occur is an essential life skill. Mastering Logical Fallacies is the clearest, boldest, and most systematic guide to dominating the rules and tactics of successful arguments. This book offers methodical breakdowns of the logical fallacies behind exceedingly common, yet detrimental, argumentative mistakes, and explores them through real life examples of logic-gone-wrong. Designed for those who are ready to gain the upper hand over their opponents, this master class teaches the necessary skills to identify your opponents' misuse of logic and construct effective, arguments that win. With the empowering strategies offered in Mastering Logical Fallacies you'll be able to reveal the slight-of-hand flaws in your challengers' rhetoric, and seize control of the argument with bulletproof logic.

Massad Ayoob draws from an additional three decades of experience to educate responsible firearms owners about the legal, ethical, and practical use of firearms in self defense-the armed citizens' rules of engagement. Deadly Force discusses: Understand the legal and ethical issues surrounding use of lethal force by private citizens Learn about the social and psychological issues surrounding use of lethal force in defense of self or others Preparation and mitigation--steps the responsible armed citizen can/should take "After forty years as a practicing criminal defense attorney, I know that what Mas says, teaches, and writes is the best, state-of-the-art knowledge you can get." ~Jeff Weiner, Former President, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

This is an introductory guide to the basic principles of constructing good arguments and criticizing bad ones. It is nontechnical in its approach, and is based on 150 key examples, each discussed and evaluated in clear, illustrative detail. The author explains how errors, fallacies, and other key failures of argument occur. He shows how correct uses of argument are based on sound argument strategies for reasoned persuasion and critical questions for responding. Among the many subjects covered are: techniques of posing, replying to, and criticizing questions, forms of valid argument, relevance, appeals to emotion, personal attack, uses and abuses of expert opinion, problems in deploying statistics, loaded terms, equivocation, and arguments from analogy.

Shedding new light on a controversial and intriguing issue, this book will reshape the debate on how the Judeo-Christian tradition views the morality of personal and national self-defense. Are self-defense, national warfare, and revolts against tyranny holy duties—or violations of God's will? Pacifists insist these actions are the latter, forbidden by Judeo-Christian morality. This book maintains that the pacifists are wrong. To make his case, the author analyzes the full sweep of Judeo-Christian history from earliest times to the present, combining history, scriptural analysis, and philosophy to describe the changes and continuity of Jewish and Christian doctrine about the use of lethal force. He reveals the shifting patterns of thought in both religions and presents the strongest arguments on both sides of the issue. The book begins with the ancient Hebrews and Genesis and covers Jewish history through the Holocaust and beyond. The analysis then shifts to the story of Christianity from its origins, through the Middle Ages and the Reformation, up the present day. Based on this scrutiny, the author concludes that—contrary to popular belief—the legitimacy of self-defense is strongly supported by Judeo-Christian scripture and commentary, by philosophical analysis, and by the respect for human dignity and human rights on which both Judaism and Christianity are based.

Are you a lean-mean-fighting machine who has had years of martial arts training? If so, then you don't need a book on self-defence.This book is written for the people who do need a book on self-defence; the people who can't fight. Maybe they're not so young any more, or a bit overweight, or haven't done any sport since they were at school. Maybe they know that they're never going to be able to fight like a tough guy in the movies. But they also know that there isn't going to be a police officer nearby when they really need one."Self-Defence for Non-Experts" is a little different from most self-defence manuals. There are no complicated manoeuvres that the non-expert would have no chance of actually using in real life. There are no fancy martial arts moves that involve striking with the fingers or trying to kick someone in the head. Everything that "looks cool" but which would be of no practical use to the non-expert has been excluded. Only the simplest physical techniques are featured and they are described in a straightforward manner. Much of the book consists of practical advice about what works and what doesn't work for a person who isn't trained in the martial arts. The suggestions and recommendations are realistic and sensible. This is a book for very ordinary people who aren't so foolish as to think that they can turn themselves into an expert fighter merely by reading a book. Are you an average person who isn't a powerhouse of muscles, nor as flexible as a gymnast, but who would like to be better prepared to protect yourself if a situation were to arise where you had no choice but to physically defend yourself as best you can? Then this is the book for you.

"The Ultimate guide to unarmed self defense covers a comprehensive combination of techniques, training methods, and strategies designed to provide practitioners with highly efficient and effective self defense skills. in addition to physical techniques, non-physical awareness and prevention are also covered in great detail. The progression of techniques and training methods are presented as they would be taught in private lessons, and hundreds of easy to follow photos with directional arows and ghost imaging make learning easier than ever" -- page [4] of cover.

Coalescent Argumentation is based on the concept that arguments can function from agreement, rather than disagreement. To prove this idea, Gilbert first discusses how several components--emotional, visceral (physical) and kisceral (intuitive) are utilized in an argumentative setting by people everyday. These components, also characterized as "modes," are vital to argumentative communication because they affect both the argument and the resulting outcome. In addition to the components/modes, this book also stresses the goals in argumentation as a means for understanding one's own and one's opposer's positions. Gilbert argues that by viewing positions as complex human events involving a variety of communicative modes, we are better able to find commonalities across positions, and, therefore, move from conflict to resolution. By focusing on agreement and shared goals in all modes, arguers can coalesce diverse positions and more easily distinguish between minor or unrelated differences and core disagreements. This permits much greater latitude for locating shared beliefs, values, and attitudes that will lead to conflict resolution.