Aristotle's Material Logic

Book excerpt: What are the ten ways in which something can be said to exist? What are the five ways in which something can be said of something else? What are the four questions you must answer in order to really know something? In ancient and medieval times, the answers to these questions were common currency among thinking people. When most people think of logic, they think of formal logic the study of the structure or form of reasoning. But what most educators don t realize is that formal logic is only one part of a complete logic program. The other branch of logic study was called material logic, and focused, not on the form of reasoning, but on its content. In short, while formal logic studied the how of reasoning, material logic studied the what. There is a huge gap between formal logic courses and so-called thinking skills courses. Formal logic focuses exclusively on the systematic study of the structure of reasoning. That is important, but it hardly covers all you need to know to reason effectively. Thinking skills courses, on the other hand, tend to suffer from a highly nonsystematic topic-hopping approach, where the student is unable to see how one principle connects with another. With the publication of Material Logic: A Traditional Approach to Thinking Skills, these ancient techniques are a lost art no more. Whether you want a follow-on course to Memoria Press s popular Traditional Logic program, or simply an introductory thinking skills course for high school grades, this new addition to Memoria Press s widely acclaimed Classical Trivium Core Series is a valuable tool in teaching your student to think. Material Logic is designed to ease the job of the teacher or parent with straightforward explanations, an easy to read text layout, and digestible daily exercise sets. It can be used as either a one-semester or one-year course. Consumable. Grades 9-12."