This is a book for current and future philosophy students and people like them: that is, for people who are intelligent and curious about all sorts of things. And who like to read something provocative, or odd, or funny. And who like to stay up too late with people like them chatting and discussing and disagreeing about a huge and random set of topics, armed with that most important philosophical tool: beer.

Robert Martin’s For the Sake of Argument is not a particularly long book but it’s got an enthusiastic and forthright approach to understanding and building philosophical debates. From the first it establishes that it’s a handbook, aimed at educating those who want to learn the basics of philosophical arguing, in an informal, entertaining and opinionated way. It covers the basics of identifying poor reasoning, how to build and support a case and basic fallacies and how to avoid them. I’d recommend this for high school students who are interested in studying the subject and anyone who might be worried that philosophy isn’t for them.

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