Homeschool
Logic education is fundamental and essential to critical thinking. People who study logic read better, write better and test better than those who do not. Logic education has historically been reserved for math and philosophy students. It’s precisely these two groups that are among those that score highest on graduate tests like the GMAT and the LSAT. The problem is that nearly all logic curricula, due to language and concept complexity and difficulty are inaccessible to the majority of pre-college students. Given the proper content and format, however, logic can be taught to children as young as six.
Reading
Good reading is a lot less about speed and a lot more about absorption and evaluation. Passive reading can be fast. Critical reading takes time and patience. Logic is essential to critical reading prowess. The ability to identify logical structure and fallacies is a lost talent and thus has become practically a secret learning weapon. Consider the following clip from a West Wing episode.
At one point, Martin Sheen asks, “27 layers in the room, anybody know Post Hoc Ergo Proctor Hoc?” The fact is, Post Hoc Ergo Proctor Hoc is one of the most common and hence, useful-to-learn logical fallacies. The writers of the West Wing were not too far off when they portrayed that the two most savvy people in a room of supposedly intelligent people were the only ones who knew the fallacy. Logical fallacies are common in print. See if you can detect and name the fallacy in the following:
1.
Never has a book been subjected to such pitiless search for error as the Holy Bible. Both reverent and agnostic critics have ploughed and harrowed its passages; but through it all God’s word has stood supreme…. This is proof…that here we have a revelation from God; for…if God reveals himself to man…, he will preserve a record of that revelation in order that men who follow may know his way and will.
Source: Hillyer Straton, Baptists: Their Message and Mission
2.
Tavis Smiley (interviewer): How are you going to respond to folks on the campaign trail when they ask what qualifies you to be the commander-in-chief given that you have not served in the country’s military?
Al Sharpton (interviewee): I think that just because one served in the military does not make one a competent commander-in-chief.
3
The operation cost just under $500, and no one was killed, or even hurt. In that same time the Pentagon spent tens of millions of dollars and dropped tens of thousands of pounds of explosives on Viet Nam, killing or wounding thousands of human beings, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. Because nothing justified their actions in our calculus, nothing could contradict the merit of ours.
Source: Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, from his memoir Fugitive Days, defending a bombing attack by the Weathermen on the Pentagon. Quoted Radical Chic Resurgent, by Timothy Noah, Slate, 8/22/2001.
4
Consider the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger…
Answers:
1. Affirming The Consequent
2. Improper Transposition
3. Two Wrongs
4. Amphiboly
There is a good chance that you were able to recognize that there was a logical fallacy being committed in at least half of the cases. There is a much smaller chance that you were able to accurately identify the fallacy. Accurate fallacy identification is a powerful analytical tool. Identification combined with communication ability is a powerful leadership tool.
Writing
Salvator Cannavo observed that,
My own experience in teaching reasoning to undergraduates corroborates these results [academic gains from teaching critical thinking]. The improvement is almost incredible, especially in their writing. It starts to blossom as soon as they become aware of what to look for in order to distinguish between sound and flawed thinking.” Cannavo, Think to Win.
Skill in persuasive writing takes time and effort. Skill in persuasive writing is both a process of building and roadblock removal. With the possible exception of poor grammar, unsound reasoning is the biggest removable roadblock to writing mastery.
Speech
Politicians are logical fallacy hydrants; it seems that all they have to do is open their mouths and the fallacies flow unrestrained, yet, they are able to persuade millions. The millions that are persuaded by these fallacies are either duped, strictly act on emotion or they rationalize that, “its okay to commit these fallacies as long as we get people to vote our way.” Logic keeps people from being duped and has a tendency to put reason in its proper place vis á vis emotion. Consider the rise of Adolph Hitler. He committed several logical fallacies and would not have swayed a single person who’s emotions were kept in check by logic and reason unless they were of the ilk of those who could see the fallacies and yet ignored them for personal gain.
What we offer
We are your ultimate logic education resource. All of our lesson, games and ebooks are written to be accessible to a young audience. The first thing you should do is purchase our book, Joseph Spider and the Fallacy Farm. It is a small investment that will yield tremendous returns. It is the story of a young spider on a treasure quest. Along the way he is confronted by several creatures, each of whom represent logical fallacies. Learning logic in a story format makes learning logic both fun and sticky. The book can be read by children as young as eight with parental help. Also, you will want to follow our blog. Each blog applies logic to just about anything. We have applied logic to the future of education, to the movie Twilight, to Barbie dolls, to the current Congress and more. Check back with us often. We are growing and publishing new material daily.