Teaching Logic: On Forming the Reasonable Person
\u201cMan He made to serve Him wittily,\u201d said Thomas More in Robert Bolt\u2019s\xa0A Man for All Seasons, \u201cin the tangle of his mind.\u201d To serve God wittily requires an orderly mind, one capable of parsing through truths and falsehoods, able to string together arguments. Thus, the trivium endures: grammar, rhetoric, and logic.\xa0
To discuss teaching logic to high school students, we welcome to the podcast Mark Grannis, Heights teacher, attorney, father, and author of\xa0The Reasonable Person: Traditional Logic for Modern Life.\xa0In this episode, Mr. Grannis discusses what logic is, why it matters today, and how to teach it. Given man\u2019s nature as a rational animal, Mark argues that the study of logic\u2014what he refers to as the art and science of sound reasoning\u2014can improve the daily lives of everyone, regardless of his professional or academic path. Moreover, as social animals, Mark explains how logic can be a powerful means to attaining consensus in the public arena.\xa0
In a world in which thinking has become an increasingly outsourced ability, learning the art and science of thinking well is perhaps more important than ever.
Chapters- 2:45\xa0Introduction
- 3:30\xa0Law and logic: Mark\u2019s path to the classroom\xa0
- 5:40\xa0Why (traditional) logic today?\xa0
- 11:30\xa0Symbolic and traditional logic\xa0
- 14:30\xa0Examples of traditional logic\xa0
- 19:00\xa0Practical benefits of logic\xa0
- 22:55\xa0Logic and writing\xa0
- 24:40\xa0Teaching logic to high schoolers
- 26:40\xa0Why write your own textbooks?\xa0
- 28:40\xa0What\u2019s different about\xa0The Reasonable Person?
The Reasonable Person: Traditional Logic for Modern Life\xa0by Mark Grannis\xa0
Logic and the Reasonable Person\xa0by Mark Grannis
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