The Art of Deception

So, this is not the biggest waste of time I've ever read, but it comes pretty close. The premise is what if we tried to deceive, how would we do it. But the book is more like if i were a 16 year old girl and I tried to deceive somebody in a very superficial way, how might I do it. The difference being the authors have been so extraordinarily lazy. The book itself is ok for what it is, the problem is nowhere is deception so easily unveiled as in this book. For instance, in WWII, the Manhattan project was secret, and people must have been deceived to prevent their becoming aware of it. This book falls silent. Cold war europe, people are deceiving people, and this book is silent. Big tobacco fights the dicovery or conclusion which links cancer and tobacco, this book is silent. Insurance fraud, silent. Homicides, silent. False confessions, silent. This book is the worst excuse for an attempt to reveal deceptive practices. It is almost unreadable. If deception were this easy, people would never he fooled. But people are fooled, people are mislead, the truth is hidden from people sometimes. Instead of beginning with when people are fooled and how to do it, the authors just cobble together some general information stuff and give it a catchy title. But as far as high school kids pretending to fight deception in debate class, it reads just fine.

The worst book on critical thinking. They tell you how to deceive, but not think critically. You can't tell without a background in critical thinking if they are telling how to think critically or how to deceive. They should have done a this is the wrong way, and then this is the right way.

There's no shortage of books on critical thinking, fallacies, rhetoric, etc., and I picked up this particular one because I thought it might be convenient and fun to review this material in audio format.I assumed that the title was just meant to be catchy for marketing purposes, but I found that Capaldi is actually quite serious about it. His approach is to offer a how-to presentation of deceptive arguments on the grounds that knowing how to produce such arguments will enable you detect when others are using them against you, thus protecting you against deception. Presumably, that means that if you use such arguments yourself, at best your aim is to "win" in settings such as legal cases, debates, and marketing, while at worst your aim is to actually decieve; either way, your aim isn't to engage in collaborative and constructive dialogue in pursuit of truth or consensus (sophistry instead of dialectic).One problem with this approach is that it only tangentially teaches critical thinking, since the aim is defensive or offensive, rather than constructive. But a bigger problem is that some of the presented arguments are actually reasonable and appropriate in some circumstances, whereas other arguments are almost always deceptive, and Capaldi gives almost no guidance on how to make the distinction. Moreover, some of the arguments will usually be easily recognized as deceptive, so it would be counterproductive to use them even if your aim is to decieve!A final problem is that Capaldi's audio narration doesn't really work. His delivery is somewhat dry and stiff, the material is too rapid-fire for adequate assimilation, and audio format is totally unsuitable for reference purposes.In summary, you could consider this audiobook if you desperately want to try an audio presentation on this subject, but I can't really recommend it because of the numerous and substantial problems I've noted.

I'm using it to teach adults and older children how to recognize scams on the internet. Goes good with "The Elements of Rhetoric" by Ryan N.S. Topping, and Scott Adams' "How to Win Bigly"

Great read to test your critical thinking skills. Highly recommend for anyone in the creative field. Make sure to act upon the suggested exercises.

It was recommended by a law student and everything the law student told me was true. The book breaks down arguments and defences in a way that makes sense. It outlines attack strategies and defence initiatives. Well balanced and imperative for beginners.

Not as approachable as I’d like it to be. Kind of dated thinking too. Pass.

Great information to learn if someone is lying to you

Knowledge is power

a hard read