This little book under shattering lists 38 tips for defeating an opponent. In the fight? No, in a debate. Schopenhauer here presents what he calls the "dialectic eristic" or eloquence considered a fight. It is indeed necessary, he said, to distinguish the truth of a proposition and its validity in the eyes of an audience. You can read this book on several levels: come and glean rhetorical tricks, admire the intellectual tower constructions refined and coarse turn (there is genuine funny parts), learn to recognize the tricks of speakers. We can also, if one is pessimistic as was the author, that, if all means are good to win in a controversy, it means that public debate is futile.