BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

First, watch a video about the offbeat former Harvard philosophy majors (a long time ago) who authored the best-selling "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar"

What could be more timely then their newest book, "Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes," which mates the double-speak of political statements with philosophy?

Here's just one example of the "the tricky talk strategy: misleading with doublespeak." This is characterized by "reframing the entire context of what makes a statement true, the old Epistemological Presto-Change-O."

For intance, "Rumsfeld complained that there were no decent targets for bombing in Afghanistan and that we should consider bombing in Iraq, which, he said, had better targets." This was according to Richard Clarke.

Authors Cathcart and Klein respond, "Rumsfeld is here employing the old con known as ignoratio elenchi (ignorance of the issue)."

As in "Plato and a Platypus," the authors are always quick to provide an illuminating joke:

A Guy is taking his evening walk when he sees his old friend, Joe, down on his hands and knees under the streetlamp.

"What are you looking for, Joe?" he asks.

"I dropped my key car keys," Joe replies.

"Right here?"

"No, over there in the bushes. But the light's better here."

What fun! How can you not be beguiled by a book on politics and philosophy that has a chapter entitled, "The Star Trek Strategy: Misleading by Creating an Alternate Universe"?

This is an absolutely delightful book for anyone interested in laughing out loud at politics, by understanding in accessible terms the logical, philosophical underpinnings of the art of political weasling and deception. And you get a bushel full of wonderful old-style jokes to illustrate the philosophical points, everyone of them ontarget.

From the publisher, Harry N. Abrams:

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)!

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS