The most widely read logic bestseller of the past decade: The Logic of Persuasion
Newly published in a revised and expanded edition to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the first edition!

A weapon of persuasion that remains powerful over time
10 Logical Tools to Win Friends and Influence People Through Words and Writing

"The Logic of Persuasion" is a practical logic textbook that teaches the secrets of persuasive speaking and writing.
The author, who has popularized philosophy across all fields of the humanities, systematically and easily unravels the story of logic, focusing on "persuasion," a keyword in modern life.
This book, which has received enthusiastic responses from not only the general readership but also teachers, law school students, and students preparing for essays and interviews, has gone through more than 50 printings and sold approximately 100,000 copies over the past 14 years, establishing itself as a bestseller in the field of logic.


This book teaches you how to win over your opponents through logical speech and writing to achieve the results you want.
From Socrates' example method to Aristotle's syllogism, Bacon's induction, the method of abduction that made Sherlock Holmes a famous detective, and Schopenhauer's clever debate techniques, these ten logical tools, discovered from great minds and classics, have proven their effectiveness over time and are therefore excellent weapons of persuasion.
Furthermore, it provides specific suggestions on how to apply each logic to real-world situations such as discussions, essays, reports, advertisements, and presentations, making it a useful extension of the mind for modern people who must persuade others at all times.
The appendix, "Guide to Logic," which summarizes the main content of the text in a clear and concise manner, helps even beginners who are new to logic to progress step by step.


The revised and expanded edition published in 2020 reflects the opinions of readers of the first edition, supplementing any shortcomings to enhance its completeness.
We have replaced the examples with the latest ones to help you understand more accurately the usage of literary rhetorical devices commonly encountered in real life, such as enumeration, parallelism, inversion, and exposition.
Any inaccuracies or ambiguous expressions in the first edition have been carefully revised, and diagrams and tables have been reorganized to make the content easier to understand at a glance.
The newly added "Preface to the Revised Edition" corrects the prejudice that "logic is the exclusive domain of engineering" and reexamines the value of "the logic of persuasion," which will make us most human in today's era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
"The Logic of Persuasion," which has been redesigned after a decade and has been rewritten with even more robust content and structure, will provide satisfaction to both existing and new readers.

The age of authority is over.
Now is the time for persuasion.
For the Hamlets living today, the question of 'to be or not to be' has changed to 'to be persuaded or not to be persuaded.'
If you can persuade others at work, school, and home, you will be successful and happy.
The question is how to develop the ability to persuade others, and the answer lies in logic.
If you think about it, persuasion is nothing more than a sweet fruit that grows on the tree called logic.
But misconceptions still circulate.
(……) Logic is a powerful and lasting tool of persuasion.
Because logic is a rational mental activity.
Humans are creatures who do not enjoy being persuaded by others.
But if the reason is reasonable and justified, it is at least not unpleasant even if it is persuasive.
There is no need to promise yourself, 'I will never do that again.'
---「Preface to the first edition.
From "Logic Masters Gather in the Persuasion Club"

The strength of the example method lies in its great persuasive power.
No theological or philosophical theory of creationism can convince people more simply and powerfully than Paley's argument.
One appropriate example is more persuasive than nine complex explanations.
For this reason, the method of illustration has been loved by great orators, preachers, politicians, and scholars since ancient times.
---From "One example is worth nine explanations"

Topica, which is often translated as 'story site' or 'speech site' in Korean, has become a 'collection of frequently used cliches by topic' in debates or speeches, contrary to its original meaning or use.
(……) If you want to become a persuasive person through speech or writing, in other words, if you want to be excellent at presentations, speeches, sermons, debates, etc., or if you want to write an excellent argumentative essay, you should prepare this kind of topic on a regular basis.
It would be good if it contained not only idioms, proverbs, facts, and verified theories on various topics, but also the latest statistical data.
Only then will it be used appropriately no matter what topic is given.
---From "Make Topeka!"

This method is also useful in discussions.
This is the so-called 'yes-but' speech style.
When debating, the 'no-because' method, which involves first denying the opponent's argument and then listing the reasons for it in detail, is not a good method.
First of all, it hurts the other person's feelings and gives the impression that you are a self-righteous and irrational person who only puts forward your own opinions without any consideration for other people's opinions.
In contrast, the 'yes-but' style of speaking shows that you fully understand the other person's argument and agree with it to some extent, but still show that your own argument is correct, giving the impression that you are a democratic and rational person.
---From "yes-but argument"

Let's say your fancy car suddenly won't start.
First, you will open the hood and look around the interior of the car to observe it.
In some cases, you may need to replace the spark plug with a new one.
However, if the engine still does not start, a faulty spark plug is excluded as a cause of the failure.
Next, you can look at the contacts on the key that starts the engine or the fuel pump.
If it doesn't work even though there is nothing wrong with it, these can also be excluded as causes of failure.
In this way, you will find the inappropriate causes among the breakdowns and eliminate them one by one.
The same thing happens if your favorite audio device breaks down.
Isn't this the very procedure of 'exclusion and exclusion' that Bacon used?
For such a simple problem, you may already be using Bacon's method without even knowing it.
If you're faced with a more complex problem involving multiple variables, like buying a home or applying to college (problems like these often arise in our lives), I encourage you to carefully follow Bacon's inductive procedure step by step.
It will definitely help.
---From "The Secret of Opening the Eyes of the Blind"

Deductive reasoning tells us what will necessarily happen, and inductive reasoning tells us what will likely happen.
But the law of abduction tells us something that has already happened but we don't know yet.
(……) For example, if all people are mortal and A is a person, then deduction tells us that ‘A necessarily dies.’
And induction tells us that if A, B, C, D… … are dead and they are human, then ‘all human beings are mortal.’
But the law of deduction is different.
All people die, and although we don't know A's true identity, if he died anyway, it tells us that 'A is probably a person.'
This is the exploratory or inferential nature of the method of inference.
It was precisely this nature of the abduction method that fascinated Peirce.
And thanks to that, Sherlock Holmes and Professor Joseph Bell were able to become famous detectives.
Detectives and scientists who try to find out something new from what has already happened always use deductive reasoning.
---From "These beans came out of this bag"

Similarly, there is also 'answering a specific issue by generalizing it'.
For example, let's say the government is accused of being indifferent to the human rights issues of people with disabilities.
If you have nothing to say about this, you can just go on and on about how much effort the government has put into addressing human rights issues.
This is a tactic often used by politicians.
In modern logic, these types of tricks are called 'straw man arguments'.
It is to create a scarecrow with many vulnerabilities by distorting the opponent's argument so that it can be easily attacked, and then attack it.
(……) The straw man argument collapses when it is pointed out that the fallacy of the straw man argument is committed by clearly revealing the part where the opinion is overinterpreted or generalized.
However, the reason Schopenhauer recommends this kind of argument is that in the midst of a heated debate in real life, it is extremely rare to find someone who can make such a cool-headed point.

---From "Attack and Defense Using Deductive Method"

In a debate, a person who is good at asking questions can take the lead in the debate and lead the other person to their own thoughts.
It's like a left hand jab in boxing.
The boxer who is good at throwing left-hand jabs dominates the boxing match.
That's why the saying, "He who controls the left controls the world" came about.
Even in a debate, the one who asks good questions will dominate the opponent.
The questions asked at this time are completely different from the 'everyday questions' that are simply intended to find out certain facts from the other person.
Questions in a debate are 'strategic questions' that are designed to confuse the opponent and prevent him from presenting his argument correctly, or conversely, to force him to agree with his argument.
In short, it is a 'pillow press' that renders all of the enemy's skills useless and allows you to control the enemy.
---From "Tricks for Argumentation"

The moment you sense that you are about to lose to the other person, you should suddenly start talking about something else.
Of course, logically speaking, this is a case of 'off-topic error'.
We encounter situations like this almost every day around us.
For example, if you say that someone is tall, the other person will immediately change the subject to say that the person is fat.
If you protest and ask why someone parked their car in front of someone else's house, they will start an argument by asking why you are speaking informally to them.

---From "Be Shameless and Win"

From the perspective of persuasion, there is nothing more compelling than truth.
Because truth implies something that must be accepted and followed.
In this sense, truth is indistinguishable from ethics.
It was Aristotle who began to distinguish between truth and ethics.
And that tradition has continued for the past 2,300 years.
You may have heard at least once that there is a distinction between the fact that ‘… … is’ and the duty that ‘… … must be done.’
The same goes for the term ‘value neutrality of science.’

These claims are valid assuming that objective truth exists.
If truth is merely a product of paradigms or Jewishness, that is, a useful belief that is created and used from time to time according to consensus, then the two can no longer be distinguished.
Because our lives are determined by what we recognize as truth.
This is true for environmental issues, nuclear issues, biotechnology issues, hunger issues, violence issues, etc.
In matters like these, the claim that fact and ought are distinct, or that science is value-neutral, is nothing but an evasion of responsibility and hypocrisy.

---From "Again in Pilate's Court"