Customer Reviews

Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased this book concurrently with the duo's previous book - Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. That one was as advertised - providing a gentle introduction (or perhaps re-introduction) to, say, the iedas of Rudolf Carnap in a well-written and often humorous-enough way.

This book ("Aristotle and an Aardvark") attempts to do the same for "political doublespeak" Unfortunately, it falls flat and seems dated already, quite soon after its original publication. Even though this book shares the same basic format as the previous one, this one suffers from three fundamental flaws:

1. If you're a likely reader of this book, you will already likely have encountered the vast majority of examples of quotes in your regular internet browsing over the last few years. The specifics of Kant or Schopenhauer illuminated in the previous book required at least a philosophy major's background knowlege of philosophy. The "research" for the factual content of this book could more or less be summed up from skimming CNN and watching the Daily Show.

2. I'm left-of-lenin liberal, but reading a book teeming with wink-wink ad hominems about George W Bush and co seems dated and gratuitous. I was expecting something more timeless, along the lines of the Philosophy book. Instead, we get jocular Tom Delay bashing.

3. The "theoretical" content of this book (which, by the way, would probably be more accurately called "... through theory and jokes", though that sounds rather unsaleable) is weak. It's largely an abridged list of standard logical fallacies. Unlike Wittenstein, this tends to be something that the target audience already knows. As such, the theoretical framework largely exists to make yet more George Bush jokes, interspersed with a slag on, say, Ray Nagin for balance or something.

On the plus side, the cartoons and unrelated jokes are good. There's probably something there you can work into a talk or lecture if you're an academic.

Overall, I expected something much more enlightened, witty, and intelligent.

In case it's not clear already: read the authors' other book, and probably give this one a miss.

A hilarious collection of political quotes, exposing logical fallacies (better known as bulls**t) of the quoters - by the authors of the best seller "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar" - a similar treatise on philosophy.

Some are just white lies: President Reagan's aide Michael Deaver was asked how the President had reacted to Congress's authorization of the sale of planes to Saudi Arabia. Deaver quickly said, "The President said, "Thank God." Actually, the President had said, "I feel like I've just crapped a pineapple."

But some are blatantly transparent: "It's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I'd call that a failure." - Homeland Security Advisor Townsend on why bin Laden had not yet been captured.

Some involve shooting the arrow at a barn, then drawing the bulls-eye around wherever the arrow landed: The wednesday after 9/11, Rumsfeld complained there were no decent targets for bombing in Afganistan and we should consider bombing Iraq, which had better targets.

Special sections for all occasions, such as how a politician can avoid apologizing: "Mistakes were made" - Nixon about Watergate, Alberto Gonzales about his attorney-generalship. For those who can't resist puzzles, a pop quiz is provided at the end - you get to match various quotes with their corresponding logical fallacies.

Text is quick to read, hard to put down, and completely entertaining - the book leaves you wanting more. There are 22 excellent all-purpose political cartoons, mostly from "New Yorker" magazine. The authors mix in some great jokes when needed to further illustrate a point. As Will Rogers said, "There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."

I read Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington after reading Cathcart and Klein's first book, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar. Unfortunately, I did not find this one nearing as entertaining.

Foremost, it must be said that repetition of the same jokes over and over again became quite tiring. There was also nothing really new and innovative about the humor; most of the jokes about politics and politicians have been told before. Contrast this with Plato and a Platypus, where the humor was fresh and the punch-lines worth repeating.

As some of the previous readers have mentioned, there was a clear bias towards the Left. While the Republicans have been in power for the first six years of this decade and thus can provide more comedic fodder, I was still expecting a bit fairer treatment by Cathcart and Klein. But then again, I should have expected as much when Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, praises the book on its back cover.

Even still, it is an interesting read and you will learn how to identify the double-speak and fallacious reasoning so often employed by politicians. My personal recommendation: check-out this book from your local library. You'll learn a few things, and still have the $12.89.

Even though the book is about Washington politics, it is quite evident the author does not like President Bush. I am no fan of Bush or some of his cohorts. Having said that, the constant anti-Bush theme gets boring at times - nothing really new. The persistent political inconsistencies cited by the author of many politicians and political groupies are well known and equally ignored by most people outside of the Beltway.
There are times when the humor is quite good and the jabs well placed.

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 need obfuscation.'

The book (hardbound, as all good reference material should be) has six parts. Those parts are entitled:
Part I The Tricky Talk Strategy (Misleading with Doublespeak)
Part II The `So's Your Mother' Strategy (Misleading by Getting Personal)
Part III The Fancy Footwork Strategy (Misleading with Informal Fallacies)
Part IV The Star Trek Strategy (Misleading by Creating an Alternate Universe)
Part V Extra Credit (Misleading with Way Twisty Formal Fallacies)
Part VI The Debates (Misleading by Fabrication (Ours))

All of this is very important if you wish to understand what is fallacious and why. But if you are just in the mood for humour, and need to be comforted in these unsettling times consider: that failure may simply be a success that hasn't happened yet! This reminds me of another line (not in the book), which I will borrow from another famous philosopher (the late Jim Morrison) and quote accurately albeit out of context `No-one here gets out alive'. Is this a lie, or a larger truth?

Yes, it is true: `There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you' (Will Rogers)

Now I have a dilemma: where do I store this book? Under `H' for humour, or under `R' for reality? Alas, `F' for fallacy (examples) is already overflowing.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

The problem with this book is that unlike Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes it picks the low lying fruit, skips a tight organization, and with some light sprinkles of other material, is basically a sustained rant on George W. Bush.

Not that GWB & crew don't make for great examples, but the other book was timeless, this book is locked into an era. Not only that, the lead line about Aristotle isn't a clear joke, just the title and forced into the book later.

This could have been much better with some work.

Good read if you've been baffled by the slippery verbiage which has been flowing out of Washington recently. Fun stuff to explore and marvel at.

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 done quite well with an inherently slippery subject.

I was convinced to read this book when I stumbled upon it at an airport bookstore and saw that it had (a) quotes from The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, and (b) funny story jokes. That was enough for me!

In this slim volume [just 3 CDs for the unabridged audiobook], the authors illustrate a broad array of logical fallacies (with fancy philosophical names like "denying the antecedent"*) using quotes from current politicians and lots of jokes (see Appendix A for an example). Members of the George W. Bush administration are the primary targets, although Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and others don't get left out.

The quotes are funny and the jokes are funny. The book is light, quick, and enjoyable.

The philosophy provides a structural framework: the authors go through various fallacies one-by-one, giving a short description and then examples and jokes. One could probably learn something about philosophy from this, but I admit that a few days after having finished the book, most of what has stayed with me are the quotes and the jokes.

I listened to the unabridged audioboook narrated by Johnny Heller [just 3 CDs]. He does a good job except when he is imitating Dick Cheney or George W. Bush: Then, not so much.

* That may not be the actual name. I'm recalling here.

Appendix A: A joke from the book, retold by me

A man approaches another man on the street and says, "Jones, you've completely changed! You used to be fat and now you've lost all the weight and are thin as a rail. You used to wear nice suits and now you're wearing these rags. You even used to be short and now you're tall." The other man responds, "My name isn't Jones," to which the first replies, "So you've even changed your name!"

While the first book in this series was a real eye opener on philosophy, with great jokes to go along - a very popular toilet literature for the guests of my household, the book on philosophy and politics should have had a big warning for anyone who wished to purchase it "Carefull, only adecuate for the American market", because if you come from any other country, you won't understand the jokes or half the other things mentioned there about politics. In short, it put me right to sleep.