This is our catalog of courses. We will occasionally adjust the course listing to reflect the addition of new courses and the retirement of others.
This intensive 14-week course will introduce students to the principles of formal logic as presented in the book Traditional Logic: Introduction to Formal Logic by Memoria Press. The aim of formal logic is to teach students how to think properly, focusing on the consistency and process of argumentation (the content of argumentation will be covered in material logic).
Total classes: 14
Prerequisite: None
Suggested grade level: 7th to 9th grade, but anyone who has never had any formal logic training is welcome
Suggested credit: 1 full semester Logic
Description
This intensive 14-week course will introduce students to the principles of formal logic as presented in the book Traditional Logic: Introduction to Formal Logic by Memoria Press. The aim of formal logic is to teach students how to think properly, focusing on the consistency and process of argumentation (the content of argumentation will be covered in material logic).
Outline
Week 1: The Concept of a Concept: Simple Apprehension and the act of forming a concept in the mind
Week 2: Properties of Simple Apprehension: Comprehension and extension, two properties of simple apprehension, demonstrated using the Greek Porphyrian Tree
Week 3: Words and How we Use Them: Signification, supposition and the different ways we can use words to mean things
Week 4: The Act of Judgment: Moving beyond simple ideas, we look at what it means to make a judgment and put a statement into logical form
Week 5: The Four Statements of Logic: The four logical statements, A, I, E, and O and the difference between the quality and quantity of statements.
Week 6: Relations of Opposition: Contradictory and contrary statements
Week 7: The Subs: Subcontrary and subaltern statements and the essence of their relations to one another
Week 8: Distribution: The status of a particular term in regard to its extension
Week 9: Logical Equivalence: Converting statements through obversion, conversion and contraposition
Week 10: Deductive Inference: Introduction to reasoning through the use of the syllogism
Week 11: Rules! Rules! Rules! Terminological rules when dealing with categorical syllogisms
Week 12: More Rules: Overview of the quantitative rules for categorical syllogisms
Week 13: Finally…Rules: The qualitative rules for categorical syllogisms.
Week 14: Review: Review and prep for final to see if you really got any of this!
Materials and Homework
Course materials: PowerPoint installed on your home computer. Traditional Logic: Introduction to Formal Logic by Martin Cothran and (available on Amazon), the Traditional Logic Student Workbook (Amazon or Memoria Press) and Traditional Logic Teacher Key, also available on Amazon or Memoria Press.
Homework: 5-6 pages of reading per week coupled with completing exercises provided in the text (parents can grade using the answer key). Downloadible Final Exam, parents can download answer key. Anticipated workload is 3-4 hours per week.
