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Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington by Thomas Cathcart
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Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington

by Thomas Cathcart

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Following up their successfully funny and informative approach to philosophy in "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar," Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein follow it up with "Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington," which claims to show the philosophical and logical fallacies of 'political doublespeak.'

The problem is that Cathcart and Klein constantly fall into the same fallacies that they claim to be pointing out in others. Rather than offering a humorous introduction to logic, they simply berate Republicans for their irrational rhetoric, and by implication, their irrational and indefensible political positions.

There is much doublespeak in politics -- talking points from both sides of the political spectrum are rife with logical fallacies. One could write a very funny book that pointed these things out, but this is not that book. Given the insight and playfulness that Cathcart and Klein demonstrated with "Plato and a Platypus…" I expected much better. As much as I enjoyed that book, I hated this one. Any time an author or authors allow their political views to cloud their reason, the result is not pretty. In this book, the result is ugly indeed. ( )
  ALincolnNut | Nov 2, 2009 |
Cathcart and Klein wrote this book to follow up on their first collaboration, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar. The treatment here is similar, except that the authors loosely address political speech instead of philosophy. They do this by the rules of Aristotelian logic, sort of. There aren't as many jokes as in the first book, and their political bias (anti-Bush) is outdated. I enjoyed this book, but less than their first. ( )
  baobab | Feb 4, 2009 |
This "sequel" was not nearly as good, funny, or entertaining as "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar," the authors' original venture into humor/philosophy.
  benjfrank | Jul 13, 2008 |
Bad political jokes are used as examples to explain logical fallacies. Mildly entertaining, but only if you are current on American Politics in George W.'s administration. ( )
  quilted_kat | May 17, 2008 |
I thought the author spent far too much time espousing his personal political views. Plato and a Platypus was a much better book, unlike Aristotle and an Ardvark, I couldn't put it down. This one I could hardly finish and I'm not even a conservative. ( )
  guitarbeast | Mar 15, 2008 |
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To the memory of that famous political quipster of yore Will Rogers, who nailed it when he said, "There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
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"That sounds like utter bullshit!"
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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0810995417, Hardcover)

Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of the national bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, aren’t falling for any election year claptrap—and they don’t want their readers to either! In Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, our two favorite philosopher-comedians return just in time to save us from the double-speak, flim-flam, and alternate reality of politics in America.

Deploying jokes and cartoon as well as the occasional insight from Aristotle and his peers, Cathcart and Klein explain what politicos are up to when they state: “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” (Donald Rumsfeld), “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” (Bill Clinton), or even, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” (Thomas Jefferson, et al).

Drawing from the pronouncements of everyone from Caesar to Condoleeza Rice, Genghis Kahn to Hillary Clinton, and Adolf Hitler to Al Sharpton. Cathcart and Klein help us learn to identify tricks such as “The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy” (non causa pro causa) and the “The Fallacy Fallacy” (argumentum and logicam). Aristotle and an Aardvark is for anyone who ever felt like the politicos and pundits were speaking Greek. At least Cathcart and Klein provide the Latin name for it (raudatio publica)!

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:05 -0400)

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