Book SummaryThank You for Arguing, by Jay Heinrichs

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Thank You for Arguing

In Thank You For Arguing, Heinrichs aims to help you debate meaningfully, spot and call out weak arguments, and appeal to a wide audience. He hopes that if we learn these rhetorical skills that created democracy in ancient Greece and influenced America’s founding fathers, we’ll think more critically—transforming the way we talk about politics and helping us elect...

Thank You for Arguing Summary Why Should We Care About Rhetoric?

A knowledge of rhetoric—the art of persuasion—is valuable because persuasion shows up in many aspects of life, explains Heinrichs. If you’ve ever spoken with a salesperson, discussed a project with colleagues, listened to a political debate, or tried to reason with your child, you’ve dabbled in rhetoric.

(Shortform note: Heinrichs notes that many people don’t understand rhetoric because most schools have stopped teaching it in recent decades. Yet rhetoric’s importance is surging in our current [knowledge...

Thank You for Arguing Summary Introduction: The Building Blocks of Persuasive Argument

Heinrichs explains that, in rhetorical terms, the purpose of an argument isn’t to beat your opponent, but to persuade them. He says persuasive arguments have three essential parts: a clear goal, a focus on the right issue, and the right audience appeal.

1) Choose Your Goal

First, he says, determine the outcome you want. There are three possible goals:

1. Mood: You want to put your audience in the mood to listen to you, so your persuasion will have a greater effect.
2. Mind: You want to change your audience’s mind so they’ll make the choice you want.
3. Willingness to act: You want them to act or do what you want them to do. This is the most difficult of the three goals—no matter how well you connect with your audience or make your case, you can’t get them to do something unless they want to.

(Shortform note: The authors of Crucial Conversations explain that having your big-picture goals in mind helps you avoid negative behaviors—such as trying to punish the other person or agreeing in order to keep the peace—that sabotage your chances of having a mutually agreeable...

Thank You for Arguing Summary Use _Ethos_ to Persuade Your Audience_ _

The first persuasive appeal, ethos, convinces your audience that you’re trustworthy and puts them in the mood to listen to you. Heinrichs outlines three elements to a strong ethos appeal: virtue, disinterest, and practical wisdom.

Ethos Element #1: Virtue

When your audience believes that you share the same values as they do, they see you as someone virtuous, or trustworthy and aligned with their cause. Heinrichs explains that the key to appearing virtuous is meeting your audience’s expectations, or fitting in with them—from your appearance and manner of speaking to your interests and sense of humor. When your audience believes you’re in sync with them, they find you easier to like, listen to, and trust.

(Shortform note: Psychologist Robert Cialdini’s Social Proof Theory provides some insight on why fitting in with an audience makes them easier to persuade. The theory posits that people who are unsure of what to do will look to others for guidance and imitate them. Cialdini identifies similarity as a motivator of the Social Proof Theory—people are most likely to look to and imitate someone they...

Thank You for Arguing Summary The Flipside: Use _Ethos_ to Judge Others’ Arguments

Your knowledge of ethos can help you determine whether you should listen to someone. When listening to a persuader, Heinrichs suggests you determine their trustworthiness by examining their virtue, disinterest, and practical wisdom.

Examine Their Virtue: Do They Speak In Extremes?

According to Aristotle, someone of virtuous character focuses on choices that align with the opinions of their average audience member. Essentially, a virtuous persuader will offer solutions that appeal to the widest possible range of their audience. (Shortform note: As we’ll see later in this guide, the definition of “virtuous” has changed drastically over time, and not for the better.)

Heinrich notes two ways to listen for virtuous moderation.

1) See If They Offer a Middle-of-the-Road Solution

Looking for a middle-of-the-road solution works best in situations where you have a clear, numerical range such as a budget—the “middle” is easy to see.

For example, a virtuous salesperson will ask you for your spending range and help you find a solution that falls around the middle of your range. In contrast, an unvirtuous salesperson won’t ask you for a range at all, or will try...

Thank You for Arguing Summary Use _Logos_ to Persuade Your Audience

The second persuasive appeal, logos, bolsters arguments meant to achieve the goal of changing your audience’s mind. Heinrichs explains that logos helps you use your audience’s logic and beliefs to make your desired choice look as advantageous as possible. This means presenting the argument most persuasive to your audience rather than most persuasive to you.

(Shortform note: According to psychologists, nothing is more persuasive to a person than their own argument because we have a natural preference for consistency. In other words, we’d much prefer to stick by our viewpoint than switch to a new one. By mirroring your audience’s existing viewpoint, your argument circumvents this issue.)

Heinrichs explains that there are four steps to using logos effectively: finding your audience’s truism, determining the most persuasive reasoning type, defining the argument terms to your advantage, and turning your focus to the future.

Step 1: Find the Audience Truism

You first need to figure out your audience’s truism: a commonly held opinion or...

Thank You for Arguing Summary The Flipside: Use _Logos_ to Judge Others’ Arguments

In the last section, we talked about logos, or rationale. In this section, we’ll look at ways to spot fallacies—weak, faulty, or illogical arguments your persuader might use to gloss over the gaps in their logic. Heinrichs emphasizes that while formal logic must be correct, rhetorical logic must only feel right. Instances of faulty reasoning, or rhetorical fallacies, are important to spot because logical gaps are a clear sign that someone is trying to persuade you of something.

(Shortform note: Note that an argument using rhetorical logic isn’t invalid due to its use of fallacy—this section is meant to raise your awareness of logical tricks a persuader may use, but doesn’t state that these tricks mean the argument is bad or the persuader is wrong. Dismissing a persuader’s conclusion as false simply because they used a fallacy is a fallacy itself, called “the Fallacy Fallacy.”)

Rhetorical fallacies typically fall into three categories—weak proof, wrong number of choices, and a proof-conclusion disconnect.

Fallacy Type #1: Weak Proof

Heinrichs says that weak proof fallacies often initially seem...

Thank You for Arguing Summary Use _Pathos_ to Persuade Your Audience

The third persuasive appeal after ethos and logos is pathos, or emotion. Heinrichs notes that our emotions are much stronger than our rationale—therefore, a pathos-based argument is best for accomplishing the most difficult of the three audience goals: spurring your audience into action. Pathos helps you bridge the gap between your audience agreeing to your choice and acting on it.

Heinrichs says there are two ways to use pathos effectively: Tell a vivid story, and appeal to strong emotions.

Tell a Vivid Story

Aristotle contended that one of the best ways to change an audience’s mood is to tell a vivid story. Heinrichs says this works because emotions are built on experience or expectation: what your audience believes happened or will happen. Vivid storytelling creates both scenarios—the event feels real to the audience (experience), and they believe it could happen to them (expectation). In this way, your story builds genuine, persuasive emotions.

(Shortform note: The effectiveness of vivid storytelling is due to the way people’s brains communicate with each other. Researchers have found that [when someone is listening to a vivid story,...

Thank You for Arguing Summary The Flipside: Use _Pathos_ to Judge Others’ Arguments

When you understand pathos, it’s easier to see when someone is trying to emotionally manipulate you or bully you until they get an emotional rise out of you. Heinrichs recommends two ways to gain the upper hand in these situations:

Method #1: Appeal to Your Audience

If your argument has an audience, they can likely see that the person trying to get a rise out of you isn’t a good person, and they’ll feel sympathy toward you. Heinrichs urges you to compound their sympathy by demonstrating that you’re the bigger person: Stay calm and try joking about the situation, revealing the contrast between your strong character and the bully’s weak, foolish character. (Shortform note: A well-known example of this is Kurt Cobain smilingly asking a heckler, “Why are you here?”)

Usually, a bully will stop when he sees that you have the audience’s support. If he doesn’t stop, continue using the audience's support against him. (Shortform note: Cobain likely could have gotten the audience to boo the heckler out of the room if he hadn’t quieted down.)

Method #2: Feign Aggressive Interest

You may have a bully who “argues” by...

Thank You for Arguing Summary Conclusion: Rhetoric’s Revival

Heinrichs acknowledges that critical thinking and meaningful argument may seem hard to come by nowadays. He notes that a glaring issue driving this sentiment is our current political landscape. (Shortform note: A recent Gallup poll shows that Biden’s approval rating has the largest gap between parties of any president in recent history.) He says politics are becoming increasingly polarized due to two factors:

1) No one has a clear handle on what “truth” looks like anymore. Most people can’t agree on the value of information we receive from the government, media, and scientists. Heinrichs says this is largely because modern politicians build their campaigns around feelings, tribalism, and an appeal to morals, rather than facts and truth. For example, politicians discuss issues like abortion and climate change in terms of “wrong” and “right” rather than deliberating about an agreeable path forward.

(Shortform note: In Don’t Think of an Elephant! cognitive linguist George Lakoff explains that this...

Shortform Exercise: Determine Your Argumentative Goal

Having clear goals in an argument clarifies your thinking and keeps you focused on achieving a productive outcome rather than winning points.

Describe an argument that you’ll need to have in the near future.

Shortform Exercise: Rethink Your Tenses

Ensuring that you’re using the right tense in an argument can help the argument move in a productive direction rather than devolving into a fight.

Describe a recent argument you had with someone, such as a partner, family member, or colleague.