Good Arguments (Unabridged)
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3.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $31.99
Publisher Description
At a time when every disagreement turns toxic, world champion debater Bo Seo reveals the timeless secrets of effective communication and persuasion.
When Bo Seo was 8 years old, he and his family migrated from Korea to Australia. At the time, he did not speak English, and, unsurprisingly, struggled at school. But, then, in year five, something happened to change his life: he was introduced to debating.
Immediately, he was hooked. It turned out, perhaps counterintuitively, that debating was the perfect activity for someone shy and unsure of himself. It became a way for Bo not only to find his voice, but to excel socially and academically. He went on to win world titles with the Australian schools and Harvard University teams.
But debating isn’t just about winning or losing an argument: it’s about information gathering, truth finding, lucidity, organization, and persuasion. It’s about being able to engage with views you disagree with, without the argument turning toxic.
Good Arguments shares insights from the strategy, structure and history of debating to teach readers how they might better communicate with friends, family and colleagues. Touching on everything from the radical politics of Malcom X to Artificial Intelligence, Seo proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that, far from being a source of conflict, good-faith debate can enrich our daily lives. Indeed, these good arguments are more important than ever at time when bad faith is all around, and our democracy seems so imperiled.
‘From two-time world champion debater Bo Seo, a thoughtful, instructive and eloquent meditation on the art of debate and why its central pillars - fact-finding, reason, persuasion and listening to opponents - are so valuable in today’s alarming ecosystem of misinformation and extreme emotion. When Bo Seo’s family immigrated from South Korea to Australia, he was a shy, conflict-averse eight year old who worried about being an outsider, and in “Good Arguments,” he recounts how debate not only helped him to cross language lines, but also gave him confidence and a voice of his own.’ Michiko Kakutani, former chief book critic for The New York Times.
“In a world increasingly rent by division within and between nations, Bo Seo’s lucid and humane search for ‘better ways to disagree’ could not be more timely or valuable.” Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia
Customer Reviews
Yakety yak
3.5 stars
The author is a Korean-Australian who came to Oz aged 8, got into debating at primary school, and ended up as a double world champion (both schools and university). He’s now a journalist.
Competitive debating is blood sport without the blood and provides an outlet for people like Mr S who, by his own admission, was and possibly still is no jock. It requires a facility with words, an ability to think on one’s feet, and knowledge of great breadth, but limited depth. Jocks get into debating too, particularly high school sporting stars who aspire to careers in law or politics. (Tom-A-to, tom-AR-to.)
Here Mr S outlines some of the principles that make a debater’s arguments compelling, shows how to spot flaws in counterarguments, and seeks to illustrate the value of such skills in everyday life, education, work etc. He stresses the importance of listening to the arguments of one’s opponent, which happens rarely, if ever, on social media nowadays and deserved more attention in the final chapter where he speculates on the influence of technology on debates of the future IMO.
That having been said, this book is more the memoir of a young man (he’s still in his 20s) about his consuming passion while growing up and adapting to a new country and culture. The prose is clean and well constructed, if a little more heavily peppered with “ten dollar words” than absolutely necessary IMO. An occupational hazard for an experienced debater, no doubt.
Disclaimer: While physically large, I am poorly coordinated. At high school, I fell into the Kuiper Belt rather than the star category. I wasn’t much good at debating either, or chess for that matter. Makes you wonder what I am/was good for, doesn’t it? My wife certainly does.
Boring.
Sorry mate, found the stories really really boring. I was expecting a book about debate and less a recollection of high school. There’s so much more to the topic of debate than high school!