Introductory and Intermediate Logic courses

Introductory Logic for Christian & Home Schools, fourth edition

by James Nance and Douglas J. Wilson

Canon Press

“Introductory” in the title of this book makes it sound easier than it is. But this is the real thing—a challenging course in logic for students who are serious thinkers. The book is divided into five sections: Terms and Definition, Statements and Their Relationships, Syllogisms and Validity, Arguments in Normal English, and Informal Fallacies.

In spite of formidable sounding content, the presentation has been geared for students in junior high thorugh high school. Junior high students as well as some high school students might take a year to complete the course, while advanced high schoolers might complete both Introductory and Intermediate Logic in a single year.

The fourth edition of this book expands and clarifies explanations, making it even easier to use than the previous editions. One of the most significant revisions is the shift of five lessons on definitions from the Intermediate Logic text to the beginning of the Introductory text--a more fitting placement. In addition, numerous review questions and exercises for every lesson plus occasional challenge questions for advanced students have been added, significantly "beefing up" the content.

The layout is also much improved. It nows has a perfect binding rather than a plastic spiral. Pages are formatted with a font that's easier to read. Page layout now includes sidebars where students can find definitions, key points, historical information, and cautions. Exercise pages are perforated so they can easily be removed.

The Intoductory Logic course consists of a worktext suitable for independent study and an Answer Key.

The authors are Christians, and the content obviously reflects this. Scriptural/religious/theological examples abound throughout the course.

For those still overwhelmed by the idea of teaching logic, James Nance has created a set of DVDs. He teaches through the Introductory Logic course, expanding upon the ideas presented in the text, with almost 7 hours of run time on the DVDs. This multi-sensory approach should help many learners who grasp concepts better by seeing and hearing the presentation. Videos, published by Logos School, are available $55.

Intermediate Logic for Christian & Home Schools, second edition

by James Nance

Intermediate Logic, now in a revised and expanded second edition, has layout and features similar to those of the Introductory Logic course. The book is divided into three sections: Propositional Logic, Formal Proofs of Validity, and Truth Trees. This is a serious course in formal logic that uses logical symbols throughout.

Religious/theological content is clearly intended to help students develop a Christian worldview as well as an ability to defend their faith. One typical exercise requiring students to "Translate the following arguments into symbolic form...."demonstrates this. The arguments read: "If evolutionary theory is correct then the biblical creation account is false. However, if the Bible is God's word then the biblical creation account is true. Therefore if evolutionary theory is correct then the Bible is not God's word."

As with the Introductory course, there are both a student worktext and an answer key.

The student text is designed for independent study. Still, the content might be daunting for some students (as well as their parents). Thus, author James Nance offers a DVD presentation of the Logic course covering all the lessons for $55. (The DVD course is published by Logos School.) The total run time of the lessons is about 6.5 hours.