One of the books I took on my recent trip to Japan was “The Art of Deception: An Introduction to Critical Thinking” by Nicholas Capaldi and Miles Smit. Not wanting anything work or even blog/recovery related to bog down my vacation into the same old ruts, I picked up the book on a lark just because it happen to look interesting at the bookstore. Yeah, foolish me, that’s right- I picked up a book on deception (not) thinking that somehow this would be a break from alcoholism and addiction issues!
The book describes the basics of arguments and critical thinking in a novel manner, mostly by explaining different mechanisms to subvert logic and even truth- ergo the title and why I should have immediately thought “alcoholic”. When I hit chapter 5 entitled Defending Your Case- the book went into overdrive shifting out of critical thinking into how to lie like an addict. With sample addiction scenarios in parentheses, Chapter 5 includes ways to defend a losing argument including Never Admit Defeat (until you hit rock bottom), Refuse to Be Convinced (denial), In Defense of Definitions (well, I wasn’t addicted to beer- just pills and vodka), and my favorite Damning the Dilemma (I’ll hurt myself sober or drinking, so it’s better to maintain a moderate buzz). The book is suggested as a primer for “intellectual self-defense”, but after reading it I think it serves just as well as a how-to for deconstructing the lies of an alcoholic or a codependency self-defense manual.
Regardless of the direction it steered my thoughts, the book was still very enjoyable. It is very basic without getting to technical and is a quick read. It has been reviewed fairly positive in the past with the few pans coming from what I assume are pure sophists that confuse the term introduction with comprehensive and Pollyanna’s irritated it could be used as a style manual for deceit. If you go looking for this book, keep in mind it is a revised and updated version of the 1987 original paperback. Don’t get it confused with Kevin Mitnick’s recent book on tech security with the same opening title that comes up in many searches (just click on the pic, it will steer you true).
