High School Introduction to Logic

Update: This live course has concluded and is will be available 03/24/10 as a recorded course through our Subscription Service. This is a great way to learn at your own pace when your schedule allows.To subscribe or learn more: Adult and High School Online Classes

Logic: Introduction to Formal Logic

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Session dates: Wednesdays, January 13 to February 24, 2010. This is a six-week course. There will be no class on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17th.
Starting time: 10:00 am, Eastern Standard Time (9:00 am Central)
Duration: 1 hour
Professor: Robert Gotcher, Ph.D.

Course Description: The emphasis on feelings and de-emphasis on proper, logical thinking has left many Americans prey to advertisers and demagogues. A training in logic can help a reader or listener see the truth and falsehood of statements made on the editorial page or on talk radio shows, so he can make proper judgments about important matters. This six-week course establishes the rudiments of formal logic—the construction and detection of valid syllogism and formal and informal fallacies. The emphasis will be on examples taken from popular media. This course is for 9th through 12th grades.

Textbook: Traditional Logic: Introduction to Formal Logic by Martin Cothran (Memoria Press). The Answer Key should also be purchased if you would like to continue the book after the course is finished. We will not complete the entire book in our 6 weeks together but you will be given the tools necessary to finish it on your own for full high school credit for one semester.

Homework:
Logic exercises each week. Final assignment to analyze a paragraph taken from a source for logic. Dr. Gotcher will grade assignments and give a final letter grade for the course.

Equipment requirements:
Students are required to have high-speed internet and a headset with microphone. If you do not own a headset, you can find them for a reasonable price at Radio Shack or Amazon.

Course Access:
All Homeschool Connections courses are recorded and available to registered students for up to six months.

Course fee: This course is regularly $120 for the entire 6 weeks. Early registration discount: $25 off if registered by Dec. 31, 2009

Week-by-week outline:
Class 1: Terms
Class 2: Propositions
Class 3: Propositions
Class 4: Propositions
Class 5: Syllogism
Class 6: Syllogism

Misc: Dr. Jean Rioux's course Philosophy: Paradoxes and Fallacies is the perfect follow up to this course.

Professor's Biography: Dr. Robert F. Gotcher most recently served as Associate Professor of Systematic Studies at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Kathy, are raising their seven children in Franklin, Wisconsin. Dr. Gotcher has been actively involved in the home schooling of his children, especially in the junior high and high school years. He has taught Latin, literature, physics, astronomy, and religion to homeschooled students. He has a special devotion to the classical trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric, especially as they pertain to the written arts.

Dr. Gotcher graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 with a B.A. in the Program of Liberal Studies. He received his M.A. in Theology of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1991 and his Ph.D. from Marquette University in 2002. In his adult life he has done everything from volunteering with the poor in Appalachia, to religious education and youth ministry, to desktop publishing and computer related responsibilities at a law firm. At the seminary he taught introduction to theology, the doctrine of God, one and three, theological anthropology (creation, sin, redemption, grace, four last things), life principles, and human sexuality and has given public presentations on Vatican II, the encyclicals of the pope, social justice, life issues, human sexuality and the theology of the body. His publications focus on family issues, lay spirituality and issues related to the Second Vatican Council. He is involved in the secular Franciscan order, home schooling, and pro-life activities in the Milwaukee area and nationally.

Logic: Introduction to Formal Logic
(Click on title and then scroll down to register)