Today Robin reviews a book by Arthur Schopenhauer, The Art of Being Right. How to emerge victorious from disputes without regard to truth, presented and 38 tricks of the trade.
Content:
It is about “dark rhetoric,” the technique of being right with right as well as wrong middles. Concretely, the following techniques:
- of playing dumb,
- invoking ineffectual authorities,
- turning over words in one’s mouth,
- expressing oneself in the most complicated way possible, hoping to intimidate the other side,
- getting personal,
- and much more.
In conclusion, the author says that out of 100 discussions, there is hardly one that is worthwhile. But this one is particularly worthwhile, because every now and then one is wrong. Thus he dismisses the reader with the recommendation to look for the discourse nevertheless again and again.
About the book:
The book was published only after World War II and was a bestseller in Italy, but only a shelf warmer in Germany. The editor of the Italian edition attributes this in an afterword to the following things;
– The Italians had a darker tradition philosophically with Macciavelli than the idealistic Germans;
– Italians had a more communicative mentality.
Robin’s opinion:
“Schopenhauer must have been like Grumpy in Walt Disney’s 1937s Snow White! Now if he also wrote deep philosophical essays, it would be 1:1.”
Verdict: Do it!