by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn
What is a fallacy? A fallacy is an error in logic – a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking.
These are fallacies:
“A cloud is 90% water. A watermelon is 90% water. Therefore, since a plane can fly through a cloud, a plane can fly through a watermelon.”
“This new book, The Fallacy Detective, must do a good job teaching logic. It has been on the bestseller list for months.”
We wrote this book to meet the needs of parents and teachers who want a do-able text for introducing logic and critical thinking to children.
Equivocation
Appeal to Fear
The Fallacy Detective was a finalist in ForeWord Magazine's 2003 Book of the Year Awards in the Philosophy category.
The Fallacy Detective
$22.00
6.5×9 quality paperback, 233 pages
ISBN 0-9745315-0-2
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1 • Paul Muenzler • April 24, 2008 • 4:26 PM
I love your book! I never knew how much fun logic was until I read your book. Please write back. P.S. I am 12 years old.
2 • Kimberly • April 24, 2008 • 4:37 PM
We have had great conversations with our oldest every night when the younger four go to bed, talking about all sorts of things that have springboarded from the exercises in The Fallacy Detective.
3 • Cynthia • April 24, 2008 • 4:40 PM
I gave my son a copy for christmas. He is 13. . . . He got ahold of that book and wouldn’t put it down for a week. Now, literally everyday, he asks if we can go through it together and he is leading his brother Jesse and I through it lesson by lesson. I will be standing at the stove stirring a pot of soup and Jesse will be perched on a stool with Evan on the counter, book in hand asking us questions. Quite often the littler one listens in and answers when he can. They are all expert critics of the local news media! This has been the very best book I have given him in a long time. Thanks.
4 • Rosanne • April 24, 2008 • 4:41 PM
I just wanted to let you know how much my thirteen year old son and I are enjoying The Fallacy Decective! It’s the first book that he reaches for each school day. It has been particularily relevant as we just had a provincial election. There were plenty of opportunities to identify Red Herrings, Ad Hominem attacks, and more, during the election campaign.
5 • Colette • April 24, 2008 • 4:43 PM
My kids and I are going through your Fallacy Detective Book – even my 9 yo is getting something out of it!
6 • Tanya Preble • April 24, 2008 • 4:45 PM
When I first told my daughters ages 14 & 16 that they were going to study logic you should have heard the groans! We are just starting Lesson 13 in The Fallacy Detective and I’m not hearing any more groans from them. I think the only one groaning now is me. How did they learn how to spot all the fallacies in what I say to them so quickly? Hmmmmmmm .... maybe it has something to do with that logic book they’re reading.
7 • Susan Hawk • April 24, 2008 • 4:47 PM
One week during logic class, we played lots of games. I started the class by playing a card trick on the kids. It’s a really cool trick. I let a girl pick a card, she looked at it and showed it to the other kids. Then I used my cell phone to call the “Wizard”, who got on the phone and told her what card she was holding.
Anyway, once we were done with that and on to some other games and puzzles, I was drawing a puzzle on the white board when the girl who had picked the card for the wizard trick asked me, “Did you know what my card was?”
I just looked at her and asked, “How could I know your card? You kept it hidden from me,” then I turned back to the board. My son (he was 10yo at the time)hollered out from his seat, “RED HERRING!!!! You didn’t answer her question!” All the other kids joined in and there was a chorus of children shouting, “Red Herring!” at their teacher. I hid behind the white board and laughed until I sheepishly came out and admitted to the girl that yes, I knew what her card was before I called the wizard.
You have to be careful what you teach your kids, because they turn it back on you! LOL
8 • Cathy Duffy • April 24, 2008 • 4:51 PM
The Bluedorn family, longtime promoters of Christian classical education, encountered the same problem we did with content in most critical thinking and logic resources, so Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn put their heads together and came up with this excellent introduction to practical logic from their conservative Christian homeschoolers’ perspective. Subtitled “Thirty-Six Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning,” it uses humor, historical references, and real life situations to help teens learn to think and express themselves clearly. Comic strips from Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Peanuts, and Nuna and Toodles (the Bluedorn brothers’ own creation) are a nice touch that have been added to the second edition.
The style is similar in many ways to the Critical Thing, Books One and Two. However, the underlying perspective comes through in different ways. Verses from Proverbs are used to discuss knowledge and wisdom. One exercise statement reads, “I know everybody thinks Einstein’s theory of relativity is correct, but I can’t accept it. Einstein believed in evolution.” Another on the same page relates this conversation: “Mrs. A.: ‘I’m going through a logic book with my kids. It’s called The Fallacy Detective. I really like it.’ Mrs. B.: ‘Aw, the authors of that book are just a bunch of homeschoolers. What do they know about logic.’”
The Fallacy Detective will likely appeal to many families for another reason: it doesn’t need to be taught. Students can read and work through it independently. However, it might be enjoyable for both parent and student for the teen to read the lesson on his or her own, summarize the main idea to a parent, then go through the exercises out loud together. Some exercises require simple identification answers, but others might prompt some great discussion. The authors’ answers are in the back of the book.
Instructions for a “Fallacy Detective Game” in which players make up their own fallacies are also at the back of the book. This would make great family fun for those with two or more teens.
(Review in 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum)
9 • James A. Cox • April 24, 2008 • 4:53 PM
Collaboratively written by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn for a Christian readership, The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Six Lessons On How To Recognize Bad Reasoning presents common-sense guidelines to reasonable discourse that readers of all faiths and backgrounds can understand and appreciate. Indeed, The Fallacy Detective is a first-rate guide to common logic pitfalls and errors in human decision making. From red herrings and ad hominem attacks that avoid the issue at hand altogether, to fallacious hidden assumptions of “either-or” in a world filled with multiple possibilities, hasty generalizations and statistical fallacies, as well as the dark power and abuse of propaganda, The Fallacy Detective covers an immense range of illogical appeals that are as frustrating as they are distressingly effective. Highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader, The Fallacy Detective is a superb written and presented primer for making informed conclusions in a world filled with lies, deceits, and misconceptions.
(Review from The Midwest Book Review)
10 • Jay Wile • April 24, 2008 • 4:54 PM
. . . Thank you for sending me your book, The Fallacy Detective. I thought it was very well done. I liked how you blend easy-to-understand examples, humor, and Christian thinking together and at the same time teach the reader many of the standard terms and propositions of logic. Also, the thought questions you have at the end of each chapter are very good. Also, I hope I am not being too bold here, but in the discussion of ad hominem attacks, I think I see some of my biology course coming through. That really gave me great pleasure to see that you could use some of what you learned in that course to teach logic!
11 • Andrew C. Thomas • April 24, 2008 • 4:56 PM
I’m always delighted when two sides that seem mutually opposed come together in harmonious agreement. I’m even more delighted when I’ve taken one of those sides. In this case, I write of the efforts of Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn, brothers from Iowa who advocate homeschooling and create educational materials from a Christian worldview. The fruit of the latest Bluedorn effort is a short text, The Fallacy Detective, designed to be a primer in logic for older children – specifically, homeschooled Christian children, though the book is intended for anyone who wants to explore the subject. . . .
. . . I find it wonderful that the Bluedorns, among others, are actively reinvigorating the religious world with a healthy dose of independent thought . . .
(Read from The Tech)
12 • Izzy Lyman • April 24, 2008 • 4:57 PM
I was recently sent a delightful book called The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn. Both authors are in their twenties and have a homeschooling background. It teaches readers - via thirty-six lessons - how to recognize bad reasoning. A very useful skill. The book explains fallacies, like a red herring, as well as propaganda techniques. It includes exercises, an answer key, and cartoons. The Bluedorns recommend it for ages 13 through adult. (This adult even learned about a post hoc ergo propter hoc.) The book is marketed as a “Christian view of logic” because it does not have a politically correct bent. However, I think non-believers will feel comfortable with the majority of the content.
(Review on http://www.icky.blogspot.com)