Better title would be "38 ways to devolve discussion to irrationality".
Schopenhauer was not a logician. He searched for ways of emerging victorious, not to search for the truth.
Schopenhauer was not a logician. He searched for ways of emerging victorious, not to search for the truth.
At the risk of being Schopenhauered, I would say that any argument has a target and an audience, and that the goal of any argument is to convince the audience, rather than the target (though these can be the same person).
As others have identified - arguments are rarely, if ever, won on rationality. Rationality is a tool in arguing, like any other argumentative tool, but it rarely convinces those who do not hold it as a virtue in life.
His book is more a passive aggressive denunciation of this.