Again and again on RF, I have encountered posters who want to make a logical argument, or who have been challenged to make a logical argument, or who have even claimed to have made a logical argument, then demonstrate or have already demonstrated that they don't have the first clue as to how to formulate a simple syllogism.
To be fair, my impression is that at least a slightly great portion of current active posters on RF might be more capable of stating a deduction than is the case among the general US adult population. Interestingly, I believe it is true for several posters I've encountered here that their familiarity with logic is due to self-education.
Of course, it seems to me it would not be difficult to adequately educate oneself in logic from freely available online sources. Indeed, it seems to me that the Wikipedia article on syllogisms provides sufficient information to enable to average adult to be able to formulate such a deduction. I mean, for God's sake, the article lists all 24 valid syllogisms, provides the Venn diagrams, and classifies them according to figure and type. What more does one need?
It also cannot be denied that junior high and high school students are exposed to and required to use the fundamental elements of deduction in other classes. I recall my 7th or 8th grade geometry class. I found the subject matter so beautiful because it was just the application of logic to lines, points, angles, triangles, etc.
Surely no one would disagree that education in the US public school system is woefully lacking in several important respects (e.g., compared to other developed countries, and even compared to some developing countries). I find it tempting to assess many of the problems that the US struggles with and other anomalies of US life and polices as to some degree a product of deficiencies in education--one of these glaring and fundamental deficiencies being in the use of basic logic.
So what do you say? If you disagree that logic should be a required course in public high schools, please explain why.
To be fair, my impression is that at least a slightly great portion of current active posters on RF might be more capable of stating a deduction than is the case among the general US adult population. Interestingly, I believe it is true for several posters I've encountered here that their familiarity with logic is due to self-education.
Of course, it seems to me it would not be difficult to adequately educate oneself in logic from freely available online sources. Indeed, it seems to me that the Wikipedia article on syllogisms provides sufficient information to enable to average adult to be able to formulate such a deduction. I mean, for God's sake, the article lists all 24 valid syllogisms, provides the Venn diagrams, and classifies them according to figure and type. What more does one need?
It also cannot be denied that junior high and high school students are exposed to and required to use the fundamental elements of deduction in other classes. I recall my 7th or 8th grade geometry class. I found the subject matter so beautiful because it was just the application of logic to lines, points, angles, triangles, etc.
Surely no one would disagree that education in the US public school system is woefully lacking in several important respects (e.g., compared to other developed countries, and even compared to some developing countries). I find it tempting to assess many of the problems that the US struggles with and other anomalies of US life and polices as to some degree a product of deficiencies in education--one of these glaring and fundamental deficiencies being in the use of basic logic.
So what do you say? If you disagree that logic should be a required course in public high schools, please explain why.
It would be like the philosophy class my old high school tried to push; everyone I remember ended up just cheating through the whole thing and they couldn't recite a single thing after a month.
