Logic as a Liberal Art: An Introduction to Rhetoric and Reasoning

by R.E. Houser

In the twenty-first century there are two ways to study logic. The more recent approach is symbolic logic. The history of teaching logic since World War II, however, casts doubt on the idea that symbolic logic is best for a first logic course. Logic as a Liberal Art is designed as part of a minority approach, teaching logic in the "verbal" way, in the student's "natural" language, the approach invented by Aristotle. On utilitarian grounds alone, this "verbal" approach is superior for a first course in logic, for the whole range of students.

For millennia, this "verbal" approach to logic was taught in conjunction with grammar and rhetoric, christened the trivium. The decline in teaching grammar and rhetoric in American secondary schools has led Rollen Edward Houser to develop this book. The first part treats grammar, rhetoric, and the essential nature of logic. Those teachers who look down upon rhetoric are free, of course, to skip those lessons. The treatment of logic itself follows Aristotle's division of the three acts of the mind (Prior Analytics 1.1). Formal logic is then taken up in Aristotle's order, with Parts on the logic of Terms, Propositions, and Arguments.

The emphasis in Logic as a Liberal Art is on learning logic through doing problems. Consequently, there are more problems in each lesson than would be found, for example, in many textbooks. In addition, a special effort has been made to have easy, medium, and difficult problems in each Problem Set. In this way the problem sets are designed to offer a challenge to all students, from those most in need of a logic course to the very best students.

Genres: Philosophy, Logic, Education

488 pages, Paperback

Published December 30, 2019

Reviews

[Drew Meisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, this is a very good textbook that gives the history of logic while giving it real world application. When looking at any topic, I can’t imagine a book teaching it better than this one. I think a person could get this book and learn logic on their own without needing a class of any type. Aristotle was a genius and it’s shown so clearly through this book. 5 stars for a textbook

[Scotty Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, accessible introduction to grammar, rhetoric, and logic. I highly recommend it.

[Noah R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Nice Aristotelian logic. The edition that I have has a decent amount of typos.

[Ty Brunet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to verbal, Aristotelian logic.

[Carson Gorton · Rating 5 out of 5]

more or less helpful and very useful, even more boring than it sounds