Logic is More Important than Ever – So Why Don’t Schools Teach it Anymore?
“In her essay, Sayers said the disrepute into which logic has fallen is ‘entirely unjustified.’ But she offers two explanations for why it happened.”
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I took a course in formal logic as a sophomore in college. I remember it vividly: it was an 8 am course for which many of us students formed an ad hoc study group and voluntarily showed up an hour early to quiz each other on various syllogisms and fallacies.
I’d recommend such a course to any capable student; I believe the insights learned are invaluable.
:^)
Seriously, I’d take the thesis of the author further and note that most schools don’t even make any serious attempt at teaching informal logic—the quick “rules of thumb” which allow one to discard a great number of arguments out there like the ad hominem fallacy. If they did, I reckon that political and theological discussions alike would get a lot more civil, as I only rarely see cases where dealing with claims gets to the point of those Aristotelian categories.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
On the other hand, some mighty obnoxious people are steeped in logic.
And, some can be logical bullies.
Logic is valuable, but it can be overdone and abused.
Many figure out logic and reasoning on their own, yet with no idea of the formal laws or terms in logic.
But, for the record, I agree with schools teaching logic.
David R. Brumbelow
I know BJU has a Logic course: Philosophy 301:
http://www.bju.edu/academics/courses/#!Philosophy
(Note: “This course is not offered this academic year.”)
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What other Christian colleges/universities offer Logic courses?
Who else here on SI has taken a formal Logic course? If so, was it at a Christian or a secular school?
There are times I wonder if government education is more interested in indoctrination than education. Consider that most high school grads can’t make change, know little of history/government/ economics, and have no ability to handle personal finances. Consider that ignorance of the way government operates and basic American history afflicts a lot of college grads as well. I worked with young adults who graduated with honors from some of the Washington DC areas finest universities who were clueless about history and economics. I think teaching logic is low on their list of priorities and might be detrimental to their real goal of indoctrination.
BTW, I’ve seen Christian high schools teach logic and accidently create conflict when these students started applying logic to some illogical Christian teachings.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
…is that logic, or dialectic, is only one of the “seven sisters” of classical, liberal education. The others are grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. I cheerfully confess a deficiency in some of these, starting with the fact that I’m self-taught (from a pair of college textbooks) in the subject of logic. I am also, despite a childhood spent in the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, weak in astronomy. (among other things)
Historically, the progression in elite education was no education at all (something Twain brutally, and hilariously, satirizes in Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court), then a reliance on the “Trivium” of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric (all taught in Latin) in the Middle Ages, and then sometimes—only sometimes—was the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music added. When it was, of course, what followed was the explosion of science, music, the arts, and the Protestant Reformation of the Renaissance. Those who neglected the Quadrivium (4 roads, literally) often found themselves bankrupt as they had trouble figuring out the consequences of their spending.
Today, what “self-learning” is available in logic is often taught through geometry, but recently teachers have been abandoning the hard logical exercise of proofs, and so—per Larry—what’s left is typically a junior level class (judging by the BJU course #) that is taken by only a small fraction of students. And as Ron hints, if you want a recipe for absurd theological positions, you can do little better than to neglect the second road of the Trivium.
Or, as Ron states explicitly, if you want to put the kibosh on some absurd theological positions, you can do little better than to emphasize it. For example, most of the “worship wars” over music are fought on the ground of guilt by association, and I have yet to hear an argument for KJVO theology that does not end up as a basic ad hominem fallacy, or set of them.
I’d love to see Bible colleges start to offer a real liberal arts curriculum, perhaps with a degree like “associate in liberal arts” that would simply mean the student had taken, and mastered, these seven skills. But again, you would have difficulty, as it would inevitably run into the huge problem that revered ideas of the past would be eviscerated, along, really, with the reverence for those who came up with them. That’s no small hurdle in our circles, I’m afraid.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
….there is a classical learning test that parallels the SAT and ACT. So if Bible colleges want to offer an associate’s degree in real liberal arts, they don’t have to build it from scratch. Reality here is that no, logic is not generally learned without a strong reference (or a few); I can point to some teaching I received in elementary school about propaganda techniques, lists of informal fallacies, Isaac Watts’ primer on logic (the text at Oxford and Cambridge for centuries), and another couple of texts. One needs to learn it every bit as much as one needs to train with arithmetic, piano, or grammar, and quite frankly even the most basic bit of informal logic—to eschew personal attacks and such—is along the same lines as God’s warning to us in Ephesians 4:32.
It is also worth noting that logic is, strictly speaking, never overdone or abused. Either the inferences and conclusions one draws are valid, or they are not, and the motives of the speaker—or hearer—are absolutely not the fault of this art.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Larry Nelson]I took a class in logic at Maranatha Baptist University back in 1999.I know BJU has a Logic course: Philosophy 301:
http://www.bju.edu/academics/courses/#!Philosophy
(Note: “This course is not offered this academic year.”)
–––––––––––––––––
What other Christian colleges/universities offer Logic courses?
Who else here on SI has taken a formal Logic course? If so, was it at a Christian or a secular school?
[Larry Nelson]What other Christian colleges/universities offer Logic courses?
Who else here on SI has taken a formal Logic course? If so, was it at a Christian or a secular school?
I took a logic class at Pillsbury College in the early 80’s.
Talked about this very thing over lunch with grandkids yesterday. I had an introductory logic course at Pillsbury. Invaluable.
I had to self-teach formal logic. I had a bits & pieces background in it but never took a course… until I had the opportunity to teach it.
So the students (high school) and I learned it together. Most fun I’d had in years. Formal logic is math with language…. so, in other words, the best part of math. (Not a numbers guy, so “numbers math” has always been difficult and confusing for me, while the logic of equations was fascinating)
Pretty sure the students didn’t learn as much as I did, but sometimes late learning is best—you’re in a situation to properly value what you’re learning and have lots more mental/experiential hooks for ideas to hang on.
What I need now is a good review. Would love to teach the class again, but it won’t fit in my schedule now.
Maybe SI could offer a course online… hmm….
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Yes, now that you mention it, Geometry class was helpful to me on that score—working with proofs. I don’t recall learning anything about the laws of inference, the syllogism/categorical logic, square of opposition, propositional logic, or truth tables though. Geometry was a good appetizer. After all these years, I value what I learned in geom. more than the algebra and precalc.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I had Mrs. Harnish for Geometry in 9th grade. I didn’t like it much, but it was the most interesting math class I ever took …
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
In he good old days I received my first basic lessons in logic in geometry as well as the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning. Looking back, that’s probably why illogical thanking and conclusions frustrated me (and still do, especially as I watch news commentary).
And don’t get me going on literature. In high school we read a Shakespeare play every year as well as classics like Great Expectations, Silas Marner, A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick……..
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
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