RE: What is your Opinion on Having Required Classes in Logic in Schools?
July 26, 2015 at 2:41 pm
(July 26, 2015 at 2:20 pm)Salacious B. Crumb Wrote:(July 26, 2015 at 1:46 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: Yes, absolutely. Just logic and critical thinking will do; there is no need to endorse skepticism, depending on what, precisely, you mean by it.
In elementary school, it could be something as simple as a worksheet saying: Which of the following events likely never took place.. A. B. C. D. One of the answers could be a horse grew wings and flew to a different planet, but maybe not a great idea, I was thinking what the parents would think, as I was writing this. In one country, it would be considered good, but in the U.S., it may not be a smart move as of yet, but who knows..
That is not how critical thinking should be taught. You might want to look at something like Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric by Howard Kahane. Any edition should be fine for this purpose. It is a college textbook geared toward critical thinking rather than symbolic logic. For grade school, I think that approach would be better than something like Copi's standard logic text (Introduction to Logic). (However, for someone wanting symbolic logic, I know of no better introduction than Copi, as every other introductory text that I have seen gives a poor explanation for material implication, whereas Copi gives a first-rate explanation of it. For anyone interested, Copi got that right from the very first edition of his standard text, so probably any edition would be fine for that.)
If you want ideas from online, search for sites on logic and focus on informal fallacies.
(July 26, 2015 at 2:20 pm)Salacious B. Crumb Wrote:Quote:I think a class in comparative religion would also be good.
And, I agree with you that if you wanted to take a religions class, it could be offered if the teacher was careful enough not to show any bias towards any particular faith.
When I attended High School, there was a class on comparative religions. It was an elective, not a requirement. I took it. The teacher presented the information in a neutral way, if my memory is correct (it has been a long time). A decent teacher can present it fairly without too much trouble. It does not require much thinking to tell people that, according to mainstream Islam, Muhammad is the prophet of God, etc.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.