Logic and Mr. Limbaugh: A Dittohead's Guide to Fallacious Reasoning. - book reviews

Uncovering truth when people try to obscure it is as old as time. Socrates himself seemed most perturbed by the Sophists who used their considerable rhetorical powers merely as tools for manipulating logic to benefit whatever argument they chose to defend. Critical reason was his and is still our best defense against these sometimes masterful manipulations.

But take a normal course on logic and you are likely to be dozed to sleep with melatonin-laced nostrums like non sequitur, if p then q, and syllogistic fallacies. Rational analysis sometimes has all the emotional charm of asphalt work.

Now comes Ray Perkins, an associate professor of philosophy at Plymouth State College in New Hampshire, who explains the basic laws of logic and fallacy with humor and substance. Just take a few of Rush Limbaugh's spins on people and politics and you can mine enough humorous, creative, logical fallacies for years of examples.

Rush may be manipulative and uneducated, but he is not stupid. In Perkins' book, we test our skills on real world issues and learn how to untangle the logical knots presented by a masterful spin doctor. To Perkins' credit, while he clearly intends to humor us with mild ridicule of Limbaugh's pompous self-righteousness, his own critique only pokes holes in the logical arguments of the man who says he can whip liberals with "half his brain tied behind his back." Perkins' intent is clearly not just to entertain but to motivate us as to why and how we all should become better critical reasoners. Neither is his aim to merely debunk arch-conservatives.

All of us can do better at examining how the misuse of reason is used to justify our prejudices. Perkins makes learning appealing and memorable. Along the way, he shows Limbaugh to be the ad hominum king whose demonizing and radicalizing of liberal causes -- for example, "femi-Nazis," "welfare queens," and "environmental wachos" -- immediately cuts off meaningful dialogue of substantive complex issues.

Rush Limbaugh, like most successful populists, entertainingly and articulately exploits basic human truths, mixes them with people's basic fears, and then at some point illogically connects them with his political agenda. Critical reason helps us decipher when the rational argument breaks down after he has us agreeing with some of the premises.

Learning the laws of logical fallacy in a sterile, formal logic class will never stick in someone's mind as well as this humorous, pragmatic guide to logic and its real world use. Hopefully, Perkins' book will find broad appeal both in the classroom and with the public at large.

Michael Werner is a former president of the American Humanist Association

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