ABSTRACT
The 19th-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer described numerous stratagems that parties to a controversy can use against an adversary. This chapter considers various ways in which people’s beliefs are influenced other than by means of reasonable arguments. One of the stratagems that is sometimes used to dilute the significance of an act or character trait of an individual is to impute that same act or trait to a class to which the individual belongs. By making the point that all members of the class are alike in that particular regard, one gives the responsibility or credit, as the case may be, not to the individual, but to the class. The stratagems that are used in efforts to persuade or to win disputes are many and diverse. There can be little doubt that they often work; people are persuaded to believe or do things, and disputes are won, by such means.
