If someone starts talking about quantum sheep or the medical benefits of colourpucture then you'll probably be on your guard. However, for many arguments you won't be forewarned of possible flaws. For instance, should the UK have entered the war in Iraq, given that opinion polls showed that the public was against it?

So will this book improve your critical thinking skills. Unfortunately, I rather doubt it. The trouble is that there are too many short pieces which don't have space to go into details. For instance, Baggini claims that studying the winning numbers in previous lotteries won't help you win - but doesn't notice that avoiding popular numbers might increase your potential winnings. Many of the pieces are criticising sound-bite arguments, but then don't give much more than a sound-bite in reply. So you might want to read this book for fun - it is amusing to see what fallacious arguments people will bring out - but I wouldn't recommend it as a way to help you decide what to believe."; include "amazinf.php"; ?>