The Art of Always Being Right

A review of Arthur Schopenhauer's path breaking and precient book about winning debates. The rules for winning are as light-hearted as they are profound. Here are a few:

Truth does not matter. "We must regard objective truth as an accidental circumstance". The point is to win the debate, not to illuminate the truth.

"persuade the audience, not the opponent"

"bewilder your opponent"

The reviewer holds that the author implies that the audience for serious debate is likely to shrink. He sees evidence for this in the rise of the TV, and in the rise of American Presidents who do not much care about the truth (""There you go again," said Ronald Reagan, annihilating with a grin the very concept of rational debate, and the right loved him for it.")

The reviewer concludes with a comic bang when he says:
"...not even the melancholic German (Schopenhauer) predicted that the world's most powerful democracy would one day be run by a president who cannot be accused of sophistry chiefly because he cannot talk at all."

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