Review by Choice Review
Rarely is a study of some technical aspect of logic presented in a readable manner: this one has that virtue--though it is far from being a popularization. After presenting some classic cases and basic concepts, Walton (philosophy, Univ. of Winnipeg), author of numerous articles and books on rhetorical strategies and logical problems, offers a somewhat tedious analysis of the treatment of the argumentum ad hominem in 66 textbooks from the turn of the century. He observes that these books generally divide the argument into two forms, whereas he identifies five: abusive, circumstantial, bias, tu quoque, and poisoning the well, for which he makes a convincing case. The author's pedagogical method is to identify types and subtypes of the argument through the examination of examples, most of them contemporary. The ad hominem argument has generated "an extraordinary mass of conceptual and terminological confusion," Walton observes, though the Lockean tradition survives. Those familiar with Irving M. Copi's Introduction to Logic (1953; 10th ed., 1998), which disposes of ad hominem in two pages, may find Walton's treatment somewhat too expansive; but his redaction of so many approaches is succinct and authoritative. A definitive study. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. M. B. McLeod; The College of New Jersey
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
