The curriculum

The purpose of the curriculum

To produce a free, accessible, online, and comprehensive curriculum in philosophical logic with explanations that allow teachers to easily understand and disseminate the material.
To show students that the study of philosophy and logic is fun, worthwhile, and engaging. We hope to do this by using accessible, relatable, and clear exercises and examples to explain philosophical and logical concepts.
To help students cultivate their critical thinking skills, no matter their primary field of interest.
To contribute to current efforts to create wide-ranging and academically rigorous online options during the current COVID-19 crisis and beyond. The curriculum makes for a complete online logic class.
To create a curriculum that can be easily integrated into an existing school structure, either as a complement to an existing class or extracurricular activity or as the core of a semester-long logic class.

HOW THE CURRICULUM IS ACCESSIBLE

We recognize that there is a need to make the teaching of philosophy and formal logic more accessible and inclusive for schools and organizations that do not have the funds nor the resources to delve into topics like philosophical logic. We are committed to presenting the study of philosophy in ways that speaks to students from diverse backgrounds. This need has been brought to the forefront in recent world events, especially regarding the need in schools of under-resourced neighborhoods. Thus, we hope to make the curriculum as implementable and accessible as possible for both students and teachers. We plan to make it interactive and diversified to appeal to students with different levels of preparation and to instructors who approach their teaching from a diverse range of perspectives. This entails a structure that is suitable for instructional scaffolding, for example, insofar as we offer examples and exercises that vary in difficulty.

We also hope to help fill the demand for online learning platforms that may be useful not only during a global pandemic but also in the development of an increasingly technological world.

HOW THIS CURRICULUM IS UNIQUE

Comprehensive yet concise

One unique aspect of this curriculum is how it is organized. Instead of a textbook format, it is divided into 30 short, accessible, and concise lessons, each teaching an important topic of Categorical Logic. They can be used as complements to other curricula or a complete curriculum in and of themselves. Furthermore, each lesson is as comprehensive in itself as possible, such that schools have the freedom to teach concepts in various orders if necessary without losing the students.

Online option

The curriculum is offered in downloadable lesson sheets, and the exercises are additionally offered in an online format.

Accessibility

The curriculum places a particular emphasis on easy-to-understand everyday fun examples to explain more difficult concepts.

Direct quotations

Unlike other logic curricula, this curriculum works directly with explicitly stated passages from Aristotle’s Categories, On Interpretation, Topics, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, and Metaphysics. We offer basic interpretation of the passages (while avoiding controversy) and thus ground the principles directly in the primary text. While we do not dogmatically adhere to Aristotle, we recognize how helpful many of his principles are for an introduction to logic.

Classical, Intuitive Logic

Unlike many logic curricula, which focus on mathematical, computational, or other forms of rigorous intermediate logics, this curriculum simply seeks to lay the basis for reasonable thinking without requiring any prerequisites.