Logic

• Cycle Year 1 (2024–25): Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft
• Cycle Year 2 (2025–26): Argument and Inference: An Introduction to Inductive Logic by Gregory Johnson (MIT Press)

In Cycle Year 1, students work through Socratic Logic, by Peter Kreeft, which presents the complete system of classical Aristotelian logic, the natural logic of the four language arts (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Students practice interpreting ordinary language, analyzing and also constructing effective arguments, smoking out hidden assumptions, making “argument maps,” and using the Socratic method in various circumstances. Exercises in the text expose students to many classical quotations, and additional chapters introduce philosophical issues in a Socratic manner and from a commonsense, realistic point of view. This course prepares students for reading Great Books and models Socrates as the beginner’s ideal teacher and philosopher.

While Kreeft’s Socratic Logic helps students develop deductive reasoning skills, the textbook for Cycle Year 2 helps students develop inductive reasoning and also helps them explore aspects of probability.

Students should expect to spend half an hour to an hour each week completing assigned homework.

Students who are not able to begin the BHSC logic cycle in a Cycle 1 year (2024-25) will be able to join in a new logic rotation in 2026–27. In the meantime, we recommend a prequel year for rising 6th/7th grade students which families can do at home independently:

• Prequel Year (for 6th/7th graders): The Fallacy Detective by Hans & Nathaniel Bluedorn, for study at home

The Fallacy Detective is a very fun introduction to logical reasoning which students can work through independently or with the family.