The Art of Controversy: The Art of Being Right

The Art of Controversy or The Art of Being Right is an acidulous, sarcastic treatise written by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. In it, Schopenhauer examines a total of thirty-eight methods of showing up one's opponent in a debate. He introduces his essay with the idea that philosophers have concentrated in ample measure on the rules of logic, but have not engaged with the darker art of the dialectic, of controversy. Whereas the purpose of logic is classically said to be a method...