The Art of Being Right

Arthur Schopenhauer is a German irrationalist philosopher. Schopenhauer’s teachings—whose main ideas are laid out in the work “The World as Will and Representation” and other writings—are often called the “pessimistic philosophy.”

“On the Art of Winning in Argument” is a manual on conducting disputes written in the 19th century and still not losing its relevance in the 21st. In this work, Schopenhauer sets the goal of winning a dispute and provides specific recommendations for achieving it consistently. In the author’s opinion, to win a debate, it’s not necessary to be factually right—you just need to use the right techniques. He lists more than 30 so-called tricks.

This edition also includes the chapter “On Independent Thinking” from “Parerga und Paralipomena,” as well as another chapter from the same book, aphorisms and excerpts from other works by the philosopher. These pieces will allow the reader to become acquainted with the art of expressing one’s own thought in a brief, precise, and witty form—something Arthur Schopenhauer was unmatched at.