Winning Arguments: What Works and Doesn't Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the Courtroom, and the Classroom
Written by Stanley Fish
Narrated by Joe Barrett
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
A lively and accessible guide to understanding rhetoric by the world class English and Law professor and bestselling author of How to Write a Sentence.
Filled with the wit and observational prowess that shaped Stanley Fish’s acclaimed bestseller How to Write a Sentence, Winning Arguments guides readers through the “greatest hits” of rhetoric. In this clever and engaging guide, Fish offers insight and outlines the crucial keys you need to win any debate, anywhere, anytime—drawn from landmark legal cases, politics, his own career, and even popular film and television. A celebration of clashing minds and viewpoints, Winning Arguments is sure to become a classic.
Stanley Fish
Stanley Fish is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University and a visiting professor of law at Cardozo University. He has previously taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has received many honors and awards, including being named the Chicagoan of the Year for Culture. He is the author of many renowned books, including Winning Arguments and How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One. Fish is a former weekly columnist for The New York Times. His essays and articles have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, and The Atlantic.
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Reviews for Winning Arguments
17 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I have this book it sucks asshole mixed with puke
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5TO COMMUNICATE IS TO HAVE SELF CONTROL OF LOSE LIPS THAT SINKS SHIPS OR SHIT. ITS ABOUT WORDS LIKE COMMON CURTESY, BEING MINDFUL AS ITS NOT AN ATTACK, BEING MINDFUL TO RESPECFULLY WATCH THE TIME. SAY IT ONCE- REMEMBER BEGGING IS PATHETIC THUS REPETITIVE- , JUST AS LOSING YOUR COOL AND ARROGANTLY THINKING THAT IT MATTERS NOT HOW YOU EXPRESS YOURSELF- DELIVERY SAYS MUCH AND WHEN SUBJECT MATTER IS PRESENTED AND THE AUDIANCE IS SOCIALLY UNDER-DEVELOPED, NOT OF COURSE STUPID- ABLE TO LEARN, HOWEVER STUBORN A REAL KNOW IT ALL- REFUSAL TO LEARN SOMETHIN, LIKE THE TOWN CRYER- WHO WHO GOT HIS NAME BECAUSE OF THE IRRESPONSIBILITY OF RECONIZING THE COMMON DENOMINATOR- OR THE ABILITY TO BE IN PEACE. THATS WHAT I LKE ABOUT THIS BOOK - ITS SPEAKS VOLUMES OF HOW TO COMMUNICATE TO HEAL AND GROW - BUILD A PERSON UP, EVEN BY SAYING- YOU KNOW.. I RESPECT THAT MY BOOK DID NOT SIT WELL WITH YOU, AND ITS IMPORTANT FOR ME TO LEARN FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE- BECAUSE I BELIEVE- THAT THE PARTS THAT BOTHERED ME WERE PARTS i NEEDED TO REFLECT AND ASK MYSELF WHY? AS THE ART OF COMMUNICATION IS A GIVER AND A RECIEVER- AND WHEN YOU STOP AND FEEL IT SUX TO BE YOU? I LEARNED IT AN AREA THAT CHALLENGES ME TO DIVE DEEPER- IN THE WHY BEHIND THE WHY- EMBRACE IT- GROW AND DO IT DIFFRENT NEXT TIME. I AM REREADING TO SEE IF I MISSED ANYTHING THAT COULD AIDE ME IN MY FUTURE COMMUNICATION WITH A HUMAN BEING
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stanley Fish, a professor of law and of literature, has written a little gem of book about arguments: political, marital, legal, and academic. And although he offers several useful strategies in how to win various kinds of arguments, his principal thesis is that argumentation is an essential and unavoidable aspect of communication. The world we live in is one of constant argument in the sense that much of our communication is an effort to convince the hearer that what we say is true.One of the earliest (and perhaps most primitive) form of argument is that from authority. Parents often prevail over their offspring simply by asserting, “Because I said so!” Others look to Holy Scripture or recognized experts. Ironically, Aristotle identified the technique of argument from authority, and then he became one! Fish describes politics as “not a fully rational process, although neither is it irrational.” He points out that “there is no neutral space from the vantage point of which the varieties of spin can be inventoried and assessed.” Arguments themselves don’t end political debates. Neither “side” is likely to be convinced. No matter what rational arguments you assert to an avid Trump supporter, you won’t convince him or her that their hero is a demented moron, nor will you convince detractors that he is a good person. In fact, Fish claims that Trump's tendency to advance both sides of the same argument depending on the day is irrelevant. As Fish says, Trump could never be off message, because he is the message. For Fish, Trump’s victory is a triumph of pathos (emotion) over logos (reason) and ethos (the character of the speaker). Yet sometimes, political arguments seem to prevail all at once, e.g., the legitimacy of same-sex marriage is now recognized by a substantial majority of the population. There, the rational arguments themselves probably did not carry the day as much as gay pride parades and general acceptance of homosexuality in television and film. It was unpredictable confluence of cultural forces that had the most influence on creating a new level of acceptance.Marital arguments are a class unto their own. Fish asserts that one spouse is almost never able to use rationality to convince the other spouse of the superiority of the first’s position. Rather, since most marital arguments involve hurt feelings, there really is no realistic chance of “winning” them. Fish recommends that one spouse begin the rapprochement by conceding that he or she was wrong and hope for the best. Fish asserts that most arguments are constrained by what he calls “bounded argument spaces.” Arguments that are “allowed” are distinguished from those that just won’t fly. Each category is formally identified and known to everyone participating. Legal arguments presuppose a large fairly well understood bounded argument space. The practitioners of legal argumentation (lawyers) spend a lot of time and effort learning what kinds of arguments are to be permitted. Indeed, most trials are not so much attempts to determine what happened as efforts of each side to fit facts into legally pre-recognized categories like “negligence,” “notice,” or “conspiracy.” [Note: legal research is defined by these categories as well, lending a pre-determined outcome to the parameters of argumentation.]What is or is not a proper academic argument is itself something continually being argued about. One aspect of academic arguments identified by Fish is “in addition to restrictions on the arguments one can make, there are restrictions on who can make them and receive a respectful hearing.” Without a Ph.D., you’re not likely to have your interpretation of Paradise Lost published in a respected academic journal, no matter how original or compelling it is. Part of legitimization also involves employing accepted arcane terms associated with the field. Clarity can be lost in the process, but everyone is happy because the argumentation now is refutable only by initiates into the club. Fish contends that argumentation is an inescapable aspect of life and that pining for a world without argument is a fool’s errand. To him:"…the wish to escape argument is really the wish to escape language, which is really the wish to escape politics, and is finally the wish to escape mortality—and it won’t matter a whit. For one effect of inhabiting the condition of difference—the condition of being partial, the condition of not being in direct touch with the final unity and full meaning of the universe—is that we long to transcend it; and it is that longing, forever disappointed, that keeps us going."Or as Kingsley Amis once wrote, "If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing."Evaluation: I liked this book and I liked its conclusion. For me, arguments [properly conducted within appropriate bounded argument spaces] are fun. Like the Monty Python sketch Fish recounts in the beginning when a man enters an office and says to the receptionist, “I’d like to have an argument, please,” my wife and I communicate mainly by argumentation, as a subset of our competitive relationship generally. We agree on almost nothing, so we will always have something to talk [argue (?)] about.(JAB)