Intermediate Course (13 yrs and up), $195, 14 week course - Prerequisite: One Intermediate Level Course - also Basics of Logic advised but not required*
Classical education trains the student in Logic informally through Literature (Grammar), Mathematics, and the Natural Sciences. Indeed, the student uses Logic constantly, not only in his or her other formal studies, but also in everyday thinking and speaking. Why, then, should a student take a course in Formal Logic? Just as the formal study of Grammar can help a student improve his or her writing and speaking skills, so can the formal study of Logic help to improve one’s thinking and debating skills. Over the course of 14 weeks, we will be exploring the three parts of Logic with the help of Aristotle and his “friends” (see full description below). Students will read excerpts from Aristotle and others that illustrate or seek to explain the three “acts of the mind” that produce the logical term, proposition, and syllogism respectively, discuss these seminal texts in class, and work through problem sets to increase their skill in recognizing, analysing, and constructing definitions, propositions, and arguments.
Traditional Logic – that is, Logic as it was understood by its inventor, Aristotle, and expanded upon by those working within the Aristotelian tradition – is comprised of three main parts. First, there are the terms we use to name things; the logician is thus interested in the proper methods we should use when constructing definitions so that they will be as clear as the subject matter allows. Aristotle’s Categories treats this topic. Second, there are the propositions or truth claims that we make in the course of argumentation; the logician is interested in seeing how truth claims relate to one another so that we can see what follows immediately from the truth or falsity of some statement. Aristotle’s On Interpretation treats this topic. Third, we have the argument or syllogism itself: given that we have clarified our terms and verified our truth claims, how can we combine two or more truth claims to arrive at a new or previously unknown truth? Aristotle dealt with this topic in his Posterior Analytics.
*WISDOM's Basics of Logic course focuses on the practical or applied use of Logic, whereas this course focuses on the principles that make up the concept of Logic and how it forms the way we think and then act.
All readings will be provided in an online format to registered students.