Customer Reviews

Straight and Crooked Thinking (Headway Books)

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This book should be required reading for anyone that takes public policy issues seriously. It explains the various techniques and ploys by which emotionally loaded words and various debating tricks can transform an intellectually honest debate into a propaganda campaign, and gives techniques to counter these ploys. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Although written at the end of the 1930's, the book is amazingly relevant today and one of the most clearly presented and well thought-out books of its kind that I've ever read. It is well worth your time.

This is one of the most useful books that I have ever read. The author points out how debates are often lead away from the main issues by using arguments that appeal to emotion rather than to facts.He clearly describes how it is done and how to avoid being lead away from the issues by such devices. Important reading for anyone who has been in a debate and wonders why the opponent didn't sound convincing and yet you were unable to answer him/her!

This book was the single most valuable book which I ever read, since it explains how people distort agruments through emotions. The book clearly explains what is happening and then teaches you how to handle the situation.

I last read this book about 15 years ago as a student and the lessons of the 38 dishonest tricks used in arguments detailed in the book have left a life-lasting impression on me. It is an invaluable book which is still relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1930. Could the copyright owner(s) please reissue this book or better yet, contribute to the public domain?

The single most useful book dealing with the techniques of discussion and argumentation that I've read. Still use its principles 10 years later !. Good to know what professional persuaders (politicians etc.) have in their armoury.

This book deals with situations where we sabotage ourselves with crooked thinking and how we can arrive at reasonable and sane conclusions by reducing arguments down to the facts, especially around controversial areas as politics, religion and morals. It also tells how to innoculate oneself from other people's crooked thinking or unscrupulous intent. Interesting are the thirty-eight dishonest tricks which are commonly used in argument and the methods of overcoming them.

In my biased opinion, this ranks as one of the finest books on the subject of critical thinking. Unfortunately, it is highly priced on Amazon.com, but one can find cheaper alternatives on the internet. Thouless focuses a lot on how social proof, and other biases do impede one's ability to think rationally, especially when facts are not conclusive, or when there are more than two plausible arguments in a given scenario. Good for policy makers, students, regular folks, and people who routinely make decisions under uncertainty.

Reading this book opened my eyes to exactly how badly crooked thinking runs our society today: how little emphasis we place on actual evidence and argument, what kind of dishonest argumentation our politicians and news providers use, etc. The only thing I didn't like about this book is that I had to go to a used bookshop in Perth, Australia to find it! Why isn't this masterwork still in print? We need it just as much now as they did in the 1930s!

Intellectual honesty is not necessarily incompatible with public speaking. The ideal of straight thinking must be the application of the scientific habit of thought to all your practical problems. This book deals with those situations in which cold, unemotional thinking is needed, e.g., whenever you discuss controversial topics. In addition, this eminent psychologist tells you how to protect yourself from crooked thinking and intellectual exploitation by unscrupulous speakers such as: prejudice, words and facts, habits of thought, pitfalls in analogy, tricks of suggestion, emotional meaning, some logical fallacies, the value of straight thinking, and definition and some of its difficulties; plus 38 dishonest tricks which are commonly used in arguments , with the methods of overcoming them.