BOOK REVIEW: ‘Conflicted’, by Ian Leslie — the argument for having better arguments

We inhabit a world of conflict — not just of wars and border tensions, but of argument, verbal jousting and social media pile-ons. There may be no more disagreements than before, but they are more visible, more audible, and they provoke more anxiety.

The angst is worsened by globalisation, and the fracturing of equitably distributed economic growth and generational opportunity. But it is also due to forgetting — a failure to recall tested techniques of argument that make our species uniquely innovative and productive, which reach back to Aristotle...