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Is there too much overlap between Fallacy Detective and Art of Argument?


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  • 2 weeks later...

There's overlap in the actual material - i.e., they both present the same fallacies - but they're presented in completely different ways. I'm using Fallacy Detective to introduce the fallacies and give my son a bit of experience in working with them, after which we'll go through them indepth with the CAP materials.

 

FD is very conversational and light - it's written by teenage boys - while the CAP materials go much more in-depth. Both are great, just different approaches. Hope that helps :)

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I picked up Fallacy Detective inexpensively used and was ho-hum about it. Like Kates says, it's an adequate introduction. Art of Argument was what I saw at the convention and loved. I didn't buy because the new edition was coming out (this was last spring). I keep forgetting about the CAP sale. Is there another place to buy it with free shipping, or do I need to bite the bullet and buy from them?

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Fallacy Detectives also contains a great deal of material a parent might find objectionable for children including abortion politics and a free admixture of the authors' own theological and ideological positions inserted into the text.

 

My copy went into the trash. Rubbish.

 

Bill

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I was one of the only books I have preread and filtered. I went through the book crossing out any questionable passages and excersizes, then we did it orally with me holding the book and reading it aloud. Fortuantely, the issues were so obvious (abortion, spanking, etc.) and repetative that it was easy for me to quickly skim the text and pick them out. My children were old enough to have discussed abortion with us, but I didn't want those things being used as examples in their schoolwork. (Just in case somebody wants to use this book.) My children found it fun. It was an easy introduction to fallacies. They had met them informally, but it was nice to have them all bunched together.

Nan

Edited by Nan in Mass
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Quad-Are you doing all the writing in AoA or just doing it orally? I was looking at it last night, trying to decide if it was appropriate for us now or not...

 

We do the exercises orally and the tests and quizzes written. I have the older version, 98 I think, and don't like the set up of the program, but my son likes it a lot. I heard that they have fixed the problems in the newest version. I have also seen that he has learned so many real life lessons from both books. He can see through most advertising now and had a lot of fun checking the mail with all of the political ads.;)

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Fallacy Detectives also contains ... a free admixture of the authors' own theological and ideological positions inserted into the text.

 

My copy went into the trash. Rubbish.

 

Bill

:iagree:But I sold my copy. One man's trash is another mans treasure and all that.

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Fallacy Detectives also contains a great deal of material a parent might find objectionable for children including abortion politics and a free admixture of the authors' own theological and ideological positions inserted into the text.

 

My copy went into the trash. Rubbish.

 

Bill

 

The newest edition is supposed to have removed all such references. The author posted on one of our threads here with that information.

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The newest edition is supposed to have removed all such references. The author posted on one of our threads here with that information.

 

I believe you are confusing the Fallacy Detective with the Art of Arguement from Classical Academic Press (which was revised).

 

Bill

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I believe you are confusing the Fallacy Detective with the Art of Arguement from Classical Academic Press (which was revised).

 

Bill

 

I'm sorry, Spy, you are correct. I was thinking of the earlier version of Art of Argument. I don't remember any objectionable content in Fallacy Detective. :confused: Oh well -- as TechWife said, one man's trash is another man's treasure. :)

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I'm sorry, Spy, you are correct. I was thinking of the earlier version of Art of Argument. I don't remember any objectionable content in Fallacy Detective. :confused: Oh well -- as TechWife said, one man's trash is another man's treasure. :)

 

There is (from my perspective) a great deal of objectionable material in Fallacy Detective including (but not limited to) abortion politics. The authors push their own ideological and theological positions quite freely in this work. It is not a straight-forward "informal logic" book, rather it has an agenda and pushes a particular "worldview." The whole book is slanted to that end.

 

In good faith I could not have passed it on. Into the trash it went.

 

Bill

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