An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments

A fun and entertaining way to learn critical thinking and logical reasoning

Aimed at teaching newcomers to the field of critical thinking - particularly younger ones - the importance of logical reasoning using a novel approach, this book covers a small set of common errors in reasoning and visualises them using memorable illustrations that are supplemented with lots of examples.

Have you read (or stumbled into) one too many irrational online debates? Ali Almossawi certainly had, so he wrote An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments! This handy guide is here to bring the internet age a much needed dose of old-school logic (really old-school, a la Aristotle).

Here are cogent explanations of the straw man fallacy, the slippery slope argument, the ad hominem attack, and other common attempts at reasoning that fall short — plus a beautifully drawn menagerie of animals who (adorably) commit every logical faux pas. Rabbit thinks a strange light in the sky must be a UFO because no one can prove otherwise (the appeal to ignorance). And Lion doesn’t believe that gas emissions harm the planet because, if that were true, he wouldn’t like the result (the argument from consequences).

Once you learn to recognise these abuses of reason, they start to crop up everywhere from parliamentary debate to YouTube comments — which makes this geek-chic book a must for anyone in the habit of holding opinions. It’s the antidote to fuzzy thinking, with furry animals!