Daily life brings decisions.  Some decisions are more important than others, but all decisions are (or should be) based upon a really important skill called reasoning.  There are few things as important that we can do as parents as equip our children to reason well.  Furthermore, as a student and person who lives in a culture/society, you should be eager to learn how to identify false claims from true ones.  Each person should really want to know how best to evaluate the ‘forks in the road’ that we will have to choose and good reasoning and logic skills will inform that decision.

 

In this class, students will get introduced to - and learn the basics of - reason and logic.  Here are a few of the questions that will be answered and explained:

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• What is the difference between reason and logic?

• What is critical thinking and why is it important?

• Are there different kinds of logic and what are their differences?

• What is a good and useful way to argue versus a bad and counter-productive way to argue with others?

• Are some things more worthy of arguing about than others?

• What are the main informal logical fallacies?  (This topic will comprise 80% of the course.)

 

There are many issues in the U.S. culture which beg for good reasoning and logic to be applied to them for clarity of understanding.  Nothing is more valuable than being able to think about important matters and to try to come to good, reasoned conclusions.  This is especially true for young people who are starting to explore the world and seeking to understand the things they experience and the claims they hear.

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Students will learn the basics of logic and will understand how to use premises to support a conclusion.  They will learn what fallacies are and how to identify them using real-life examples.

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Students will be expected to participate in the discussions we have, and to apply what they have learned.  There are no prerequisites required for this class…just a thirst for learning!  Homework is optional.  The lessons are designed for high school-aged students or advanced middle school, but many adults would benefit from this course as well.  Classes are generally structured for up to 10 students in six, one-hour lessons delivered using Zoom, an online meeting application.  Click here to go to the page where you can find out how enroll in this course.

 

For more information on how the course and classes are run or answers to other questions, please see our FAQ page.

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This class will be loosely based on the excellent book, “The Art of Argument: An Introduction to the Informal Fallacies” by Larsen and Hodge.

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This is a six-week class held once a week for one hour per week for a total of six hours of instruction.

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For a full description of this course, please click the Full Course Syllabus to view or download that PDF document.

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