Symbolic logic

[Emily ZL]

Hey all, first time posting on the AL board.. Does anyone know why there seems to be so little out there for homeschooling symbolic logic? Why is this considered college work? My DH and I both took it in college (different schools) and thought it was surprisingly easy for everyone in the class to grasp and so helpful for evaluating arguments. I figured my middle schooler was in a good place to intro this, because he loves language and codes. I looked at MP's Formal Logic and CAP's Discovery of Deduction, and they both are super wordy, almost entirely the "grammar" of logic, like explaining and memorizing definitions, etc. But the whole point of symbolic logic, IMO, is getting rid of language and translating into symbols in order to make the structure clear. You know, P-->Q (if P then Q, P, therefore Q) and all that. I refreshed my memory and taught my son Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, and the associated fallacies and he got it in about 20 minutes (as I think anyone would! It looks more complicated than it is) and was happily translating arguments. The stuff in the MP and CAP books looked harder precisely because it wasn't symbolic. But I don't have the skills to go farther without a resource. I might use the Chambergon Battle Logic game, but it looks so foreign to me. I was looking for something more typical. Am I stuck looking for college level books?? Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!

[desertflower]

Oh I would love a book on this too! 

So far I've only found symbolic logic in a book called critical thinking for grades 7+ from the Critical Thinking Company.  I can't find it on their site right now for some reason.  it's a dark purple book.  Not to be confused with the purple book titled "The Practical Critical Thinking".  We are only in chapter 3.  But all of chapter 2 was on P---->Q statements. I don't think the whole book is like this though.

It is also introduced in this book series title Logic Liftoff.  https://smile.amazon.com/Logic-Liftoff-Grades-Bonnie-Risby/dp/1593630883/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/138-9574029-1689469?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1593630883&pd_rd_r=26ab482c-6160-40ef-bf36-729b89967afc&pd_rd_w=oSEY2&pd_rd_wg=ztuAd&pf_rd_p=f325d01c-4658-4593-be83-3e12ca663f0e&pf_rd_r=0N1WSMZHBP4ZK4GSBMJD&psc=1&refRID=0N1WSMZHBP4ZK4GSBMJD

Your child may have already surpassed these books though. 

[Swimmer1112]

EMF has what you are looking for, their first class is free because of Covid. My son took their classes a few years ago and I remember he was going through a lot of symbolic logic. 

https://www.elementsofmathematics.com

[SanDiegoMom]

Something like this? https://www.amazon.com/First-Course-Mathematical-Logic-Mathematics/dp/0486422593.  I picked up a copy after reading some of  @Kathy in Richmond  's lists of resources, but we have never gotten to it. 

 

[Not_a_Number]

I am not sure why that's not taught, but my experience with teaching math proofs (where you wind up using something much like symbolic logic along the way) was that 90% of kids tend to need the verbal stuff to make sense of the logic. Like, it was not obvious to lots of kids that 

A implies B 

is equivalent to 

not B implies not A

unless they talk it out with a real-life example. Even geometry examples tended to not be enough for kids to get a feel. 

[Emily ZL]

Excellent resources, thank you all! I especially like the James Madison book. I did buy Art of Argument, just because it looks fun, and he has been enjoying the examples. I think we will try the James Madison curriculum and see how it goes. Thanks!