What is logic?

[Cheryl in NM]

Okay, I want to teach logic (I think?). What exactly is it? Is working through Fallacy Detective and a few Mind Benders considered a "Logic Class".

 

My son is in 9th grade and I will include this class on his transcript.

 

I never had logic in school so I feel pretty dumb asking this question. My son will also be on a debate team this year. Will that cover logic?

 

TIA!

[Jean in Newcastle]

At ninth grade, he is ready for some more formal logic. Logical fallacies would be ok if he's never had any exposure to this sort of thing, but the logical fallacies books I've seen are all geared to being able to spot propaganda of some sort or another in ads, articles etc. Does the debate team come with any teaching of debating techniques? We studied logical fallacies in debate so that we could call the other guy out for using them!

 

We're going to use The Discovery of Deduction and The Argument Builder for our logic study. We did Fallacy Detective and The Art of Argument last year. Lots of people use the Memoria Press stuff but my ds absolutely detests their material so we are using other materials.

[Aubrey]

Logic is a system for understanding arguments like math is a system for understanding numbers. There are rules involved, like math, & you learn them & learn how to apply them. This helps people to see when someone's using a cheap trick in an argument, for ex: Use Deodorant X because Cool Guy Y uses it, implying that a) Cool Guy knows something about deodorant &/or that b) Deodorant X will somehow make the wearer a lot like Cool Guy.

 

Logic is pretty fun.

[FloridaLisa]

Okay, I want to teach logic (I think?). What exactly is it? Is working through Fallacy Detective and a few Mind Benders considered a "Logic Class".

 

I wouldn't consider this a high school level logic. Fallacy Detective covers fallacies, or problems, with logic. It's not a formal logic course. Formal logic teaches one to recognize a valid or invalid argument based on its structure. Logical fallacies can be taught along with before, along with or after formal logic, but aren't really a complete course in themselves.

 

My son will also be on a debate team this year. Will that cover logic?

 

Has the coach assigned a logic book? I coached debate for many years and I *love* how debate teaches a student to think analytically, methodically and to think on his/her feet. It's logic in action and you will hear students employ logical constructs or call out fallacies as part of their arguments. But it's unlikely a course in logic. That would be something you would want to add in, most likely.

 

HTH,

Lisa

Edited August 10, 2010 by FloridaLisa

[Cheryl in NM]

Thank you all. It sounds like I will need an introductory logic course geared for older students. Ds hated Memoria Press for latin, so I'm not even going to try it for logic.

 

Jean-Rainbow Resource didn't have the books you listed. Who publishes them?

 

Aubrey-Thanks for such a great definition! I still feel a little lost. I think I"m over-analyzing what logic might be all about. lol

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thank you all. It sounds like I will need an introductory logic course geared for older students. Ds hated Memoria Press for latin, so I'm not even going to try it for logic.

 

Jean-Rainbow Resource didn't have the books you listed. Who publishes them?

 

Aubrey-Thanks for such a great definition! I still feel a little lost. I think I"m over-analyzing what logic might be all about. lol

 

http://classicalacademicpress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=72 Discovery of Deduction

 

http://classicalacademicpress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_11&products_id=24 The Argument Builder

[Cheryl in NM]

http://classicalacademicpress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=72 Discovery of Deduction

 

http://classicalacademicpress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_11&products_id=24 The Argument Builder

 

 

Thanks! I've been reviewing the tables of contents and sample pages online and they both seem to overlap. Since you have the books in front of you is that your opinion? Are they both necessary?

 

His debate coach hasn't assigned a text and his coach last year didn't teach them much about logic. She used a few chapters from The Fallacy Detective. She mostly concentrated on speech writing.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Thanks! I've been reviewing the tables of contents and sample pages online and they both seem to overlap. Since you have the books in front of you is that your opinion? Are they both necessary?

 

His debate coach hasn't assigned a text and his coach last year didn't teach them much about logic. She used a few chapters from The Fallacy Detective. She mostly concentrated on speech writing.

 

The Discovery of Deduction is on formal logic - how to make a statement that logically supports it's conclusion.

 

The Argument Builder reviews some of the logical fallacies that were studied in The Art of Argument (by the same publishers) and then gives practical examples of where you can get material for making an argument for something and how to present it. It doesn't however tell you how to make it logically consistent like The Discovery of Deduction does. So no, I don't think they overlap at least too much.

[Cheryl in NM]

The Discovery of Deduction is on formal logic - how to make a statement that logically supports it's conclusion.

 

The Argument Builder reviews some of the logical fallacies that were studied in The Art of Argument (by the same publishers) and then gives practical examples of where you can get material for making an argument for something and how to present it. It doesn't however tell you how to make it logically consistent like The Discovery of Deduction does. So no, I don't think they overlap at least too much.

 

Okay, that makes sense. I ordered the Discovery of Deduction and I'll use Fallacy Detective since I already own it.

 

Thanks so much for all the help!