The Art of Being Right: Thirty-Eight Ways to Win an Argument, Whether or Not You Are Correct

Every man supposes that an argument is won by whoever happens to be correct. Every man is mistaken.

In the eighteen-thirties Arthur Schopenhauer catalogued the thirty-eight manoeuvres by which a position may be held long after it has ceased to deserve holding - the fair, the doubtful, and the frankly disgraceful. He called it the art of being right: the art of holding your own, whether you are in the right or the wrong.

Here are all thirty-eight, complete and in his own order, in T. Bailey Saunders's classic 1896 translation.

• All thirty-eight stratagems, complete and unabridged, in Schopenhauer's own order
• Eight themed parts, from bending the proposition to the last resorts
• A plain English name for every stratagem
• A frontispiece and eight full-page paintings in full colour - Velázquez, Vigée Le Brun, Ribera, Boucher, Daumier and Ingres
• An index of the devices - ad hominem, ad verecundiam, petitio principii, retorsio argumenti

Presented in dignified deadpan. Study these pages and you will win more arguments. Study them and you will also see, with some discomfort, exactly how you are being beaten whenever you lose.

*Public-domain works as credited in the book - the 1852 Schopenhauer photograph (cover and frontispiece); plates by Velázquez, Vigée Le Brun, Ribera, Boucher, Daumier and Ingres*

Author: Arthur Schopenhauer
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Trace Press Publishing
Published: 07/30/2026
Series: The Northlume Library
Pages: 80
Weight: 0.34lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.22d
ISBN: 9798256229153