The Art of Argument: An Introduction to the Information Fallacies

by Aaron Larsen, Joelle Hodge

Junior high aged students will argue (and sometimes quarrel), but they won't argue well without good training. Young teens are also targeted by advertisers with a vengeance. From billboards to commercials to a walk down the mall, fallacious arguments are everywhere you look. The Art of Argument was designed to teach the argumentative adolescent how to reason with clarity, relevance and purpose at a time when he has a penchant for the why and how. It is designed to equip and sharpen young minds as they live, play, and grow in this highly commercial culture. This course teaches students to recognize and identify twenty-eight informal fallacies, and the eye-catching text includes over sixty slick and clever, "phony advertisements" for items from blue jeans to pick-up trucks, which apply the fallacies to a myriad of real life situations. Classical Academic Press Educators will find all curricula by Classical Academic Press to be created with four important attributes. Each product is classical, creative, relevant, and easy to use. As our company name implies, you will find that we publish classical books and media, seeking to acquaint students with the best that has been thought and said. We also design and present our products with creativity and zest, from beautiful illustrations to engaging storytelling, ensuring that the classical subjects being taught are anything but boring. Areas we publish in -Latin
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Genres: Logic, Education, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Childrens, School

230 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art of Argument teaches informal logic. There is a student book as well as a teacher's edition (I recommend both). It includes 6 chapters, which teach 28 fallacies. The book can easily be taught in one semester or less. I loved the fallacies chart found on the inside covers of the student text-- I photocopied it and stapled it into the teacher's edition because it wasn't included there for some reason. It is a very handy summary of each fallacy.

The course was fun as well as practical. My son and I really enjoyed the fictional ads that encapsulated each chapter's fallacies. We find ourselves identifying examples of the various fallacies in real life, even after the course is over. The fallacies help you to be on alert for deceptive arguments in the media and elsewhere and is a much needed tool for our youth in our propaganda-laden culture. There is a DVD available with this course, though I found it unnecessary (the DVD takes a round-table approach, with a group of students discussing each fallacy). The real meat is in the books, though.

We're continuing on in the series with Discovery of Deduction, which is Classical Academic Press's formal logic course. I'm finding their books far more user-friendly and kid-friendly than those by Memoria Press, and have been enjoying them immensely, myself. I'd recommend The Art of Argument for middle-school age and up.

[Patience · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good resource for teaching informal fallacies. It emphasizes fallacies in advertising, which makes for fun examples and led to some fruitful discussions with my students.
Unfortunately, a lot of the non-advertising examples in the text display an unhelpful bias for republican politics, which many of my students found distracting and frustrating. There's plenty of faulty logic to go around and a better approach would have called out fallacies across the political spectrum, or simply stuck to advertising.

[JR Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third time through (April 2023) and I'm supplementing it more and more with primary-source texts. I think part of my problem (and, a problem with many of these textbooks) is that they assume their audience is in the top 30% or so of student achievement. I've never taught this text to a 7th grader–usually it's 8-10th grade. At that level, this book is a little anemic. So, my complaints aren't necessarily with the book. Most books focusing only on informal fallacies are for younger kids. I wish there was a textbook on informal fallacies for older kids, one that tracked down and included some good primary sources to analyze.



Second time teaching this book to 8th and 9th graders. It's a good book, although I wish there were examples from speeches, articles, books, etc. Those are tough to track down, but super important for the kids to see.

[Michelle Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to logic for middle school aged students. I enjoyed reading this along side my middleschooler and also learned a lot about informal fallacies and am looking forward to continuing to use the Classic Academic Press books on logic to continue our study of logic and the art of true argument.

[Danielle Bordeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son enjoyed this curriculum and learning to recognize different types of arguments. It allowed him to have a better understanding of having a firm foundation for his debates and opinions which served as a prelude to his public speaking class this year.

[Caleb Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but it was a little confusing. I loved learning about different fallacies. I can identify the fallacies but won't be able to name them. A little better study of the book would have corrected this though.

[Annie Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best text on informal fallacies that I have seen. Very usable and kids enjoy the inclusion of man visual examples.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introductory book on informal logical fallacies. It's also practical as it dives into advertising and how to argue both properly and charitably. I use this in my 8th grade logic class that I teach.

[Carol Kinsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

We used The Art of Argument: An Introduction to the Informal Fallacies in a home school co-op logic class and it was wonderful! The teens understood it, they enjoyed it, and it taught some great basic principles of fallacies.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. The kids thoroughly enjoyed its humor and the content was well laid out and clear.