Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein arenât falling for any election-year claptrapâand they donât want their readers to, either! In Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, our two favorite philosopher-comedians return just in time to save us from the doublespeak and flimflam of politics in America.
Deploying jokes and cartoons as well as the occasional insight from Aristotle and his peers, Cathcart and Klein explain what politicos are up to when they state: âThe absence of evidence is not the evidence of absenceâ (Donald Rumsfeld), âIt depends on what the meaning of the word âisâ isâ (Bill Clinton), or even, âWe hold these truths to be self-evident âŠâ (Thomas Jefferson et al.).
Drawing from the pronouncements of everyone from Caesar to Condoleezza Rice, Genghis Khan to Hillary Clinton, and Adolf Hitler to Al Sharpton, Cathcart and Klein help us learn to identify tricks like âThe Texas Sharpshooter Fallacyâ (non causa pro causa) and âThe Fallacy Fallacyâ (argumentum ad logicam). Aristotle and an Aardvark is for anyone who ever felt the politicians and pundits were speaking Greek. At least Cathcart and Klein provide us with the Latin for it (fraudatio publica)!