Winning Arguments

April 18, 2016
Legal scholar Fish (Versions of Academic Freedom) provides a practical, thought-provoking guide to improving argument skills. By dividing the book into four mini-guides on politics, domestic matters, law, and academe, Fish ensures that it offers something for everyone. He begins with an illuminating philosophical treatise on the nature of argument, showing how embedded it is in human nature. Fish uses several object lessons, including the characters of Satan in Paradise Lost and Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men, to illustrate the subtlety and complexity involved in successful persuasion. Throughout, he shows how arguments operate according to different rules in different contexts. What is valued in the academy is not necessarily valued in the courtroom—or the bedroom. At home, he claims, arguments are first and foremost “performances of personality creation.” The variety of references, such as in a comparison of Donald Trump to Michel de Montaigne, is just one aspect of Fish’s stellar knack for crafting his own persuasive style. An important book for any lawyer, scholar, or pundit—not to mention any spouse who has tried to walk back fractious words—Fish’s shrewd work can help everyone better understand the power of effective communication in everyday life.

June 1, 2016

Everything is an argument, and the debate is often not about the issue at hand. In examining what makes and "wins" (some conflicts never reach resolution) arguments, Fish (Distinguished Professor, Cordoza Law Sch.; How To Write a Sentence) draws upon various subjects and theories to contextualize and situate the role of disagreement in reflecting and defining cultural norms and values. This is not a guide to coming out on top in a squabble but an exploration of the strategies that succeed in personal, political, and professional domains. Fish uses his extensive knowledge in legal and literary studies, even tapping into popular culture (e.g., the TV series Married...with Children), in analyzing rhetorical aims and outcomes. While a richer reading may come from prior awareness of these reference points, Fish explains them clearly; readers do not need to be familiar with Supreme Court decisions to enjoy his discourse. VERDICT This timely publication that coincides with the upcoming presidential election will attract Fish's already established audience; newcomers to the author should find this latest work simultaneously challenging and accessible.--Meagan Storey, Virginia Beach

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016
The acclaimed literary theorist and law professor addresses the concept of argument.Fish (Cardozo Law School; Think Again: Contrarian Reflections on Life, Culture, Politics, Religion, Law, and Education, 2015, etc.) covers a lot of argumentative territory--political debates, marital spats, courtroom cases, academic analyses--and he is uniquely qualified to provide illumination on all. Fish shows how the arguments omnipresent in each of these arenas may differ--for example, "if you find yourself in an intractable political argument, you may extricate yourself and go home, but it will be the intractable domestic argument that you go home to; it's always waiting for you." The metadimension is where the illumination transcends such distinctions and the book's essence lies: "I am making an argument about argument and its relationship to the human condition," writes the author. "Basically, argument is the medium we swim in, whether we want to or not." The points he presents are philosophical, metaphysical, even ontological, because arguments about argument involve inquiry into the nature of truth, the possibility of authority, and the cultural disdain toward words such as "rhetoric" and "spin" that the author considers crucial to these inevitable arguments. The book is not so much about winning arguments as it is about better arguments, ones that elevate the discourse toward a mutual discovery of truth (whatever that is) rather than scoring points toward partisan goals. If we ever were to agree on truth, arguments might cease, or at least decrease, but Fish asserts that this will never happen. "The wish to escape argument is really the wish to escape language," he writes, "which is really the wish to escape politics and is finally the wish to escape mortality--and it won't matter a whit." Not the how-to book that its title suggests but Fish presents a compelling argument about the necessity of argument.

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