List Price: $18.95Our Price: $11.37 You Save: $7.58 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 401.41
EAN: 9780810995413
ISBN: 0810995417
Label: Abrams Image
Manufacturer: Abrams Image
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 196
Publication Date: January 01, 2008
Publisher: Abrams Image
Sales Rank: 19872
Studio: Abrams Image
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of the national bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, aren’t falling for any election year claptrap—and they don’t want their readers to either! In Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, our two favorite philosopher-comedians return just in time to save us from the double-speak, flim-flam, and alternate reality of politics in America.
Deploying jokes and cartoon as well as the occasional insight from Aristotle and his peers, Cathcart and Klein explain what politicos are up to when they state: “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” (Donald Rumsfeld), “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” (Bill Clinton), or even, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” (Thomas Jefferson, et al).
Drawing from the pronouncements of everyone from Caesar to Condoleeza Rice, Genghis Kahn to Hillary Clinton, and Adolf Hitler to Al Sharpton. Cathcart and Klein help us learn to identify tricks such as “The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy” (non causa pro causa) and the “The Fallacy Fallacy” (argumentum and logicam). Aristotle and an Aardvark is for anyone who ever felt like the politicos and pundits were speaking Greek. At least Cathcart and Klein provide the Latin name for it (raudatio publica)!
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is a very funny book. Cathcart and Klein are more insightful than any of the broadcast journalists. They seem to understand Washington and use their understanding as a basis of humor.
I enjoyed this book almost as much as their other, similar, book:
Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes
I enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it to others.
Rating:  -
The examples may be quoted from and especially relevant to Washington but the process of political doublespeak is universal. I mention that to try to reassure the Americans who may feel that their politicians (of whatever stripe) have been singled out unfairly. My own copy of this book is liberally festooned with Post-it notes, many of which cause me current amusement and may well form part of my future research for post-employment writing.
`It's a good speech - just a couple of points ... Read More
Rating:  -
After a throughly enjoyable "Plato and a Platypus", I was expecting more of the same crisp, original offerings. Unfortunately, this one is tilted so far to left that it becomes exactly what it is trying to elaborate on...Political Doublespeak. For example, under the lists of "...unspeakably sneaky Unspeak" their favorite is "preventing voter fraud" for "disenfranchising poor and minority potential voters." So, if you have have a problem with dead people voting,and any of the other documented examples of ... Read More
Rating: -
From Jerome Stephens, retired reference librarian, Warren, Ohio
It is interesting to note the trends of thought in the reviews. So they concentrate on the Bush administration. That administration is the one that has been in the news for the last 8 years. If the book had been published in 2000, the Clinton administration would have supplied an equal amount of equally good material for the book.
Fallacies are fallacies, and can be hard to understand and trace. The authors have ... Read More
Rating:  -
I watched the authors on C-SPAN during their book tour and was intrigued.
I just bought the book, and I am... disappointed.
Oh, the jokes are amusing enough, and the explanation of logical fallacies is dead simple to understand, and the examples given are spot on- let's make no dispute on that. A quick reading of this book will educate the thoughtful mind on exactly how and where our leaders are trying to fool us.
The problem is that, well, it's a quick read. It's too ... Read More
Browse for similar items by category:
|
Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces
