ABSTRACT
The focus of this book is written and spoken ways of persuading us to do things and to believe things. Every day we are bombarded with messages apparently telling us what to do or not to do, what to believe or not to believe: buy this soft drink; eat that breakfast cereal; vote for Mrs Brown; eat at least fi ve servings of fruit and vegetables
a day; don’t drink and drive; don’t use drugs; buy fair trade goods; euthanasia is murder; abortion is murder; meat is murder; aliens have visited the earth; the world’s environment is in danger; we must all make sacrifi ces for the good of the country; etc. Some messages we just ignore, some we unreflectively accept and some we unreflectively reject. Others we might think about and question, asking, ‘why should I do, or refrain from doing that?’, or ‘why should I believe that, or not believe it?’
