2019 Workshop Talk | 55:18 | 7-12, Logic
Summary
“What is truth, anyway?” quipped Pontius Pilate . . . or was it the C-student in your logic course? “Logic” is a term that seems to lose definition the more classical educators attempt to make practical use of it. Dorothy Sayers gave a great gift to the modern classical ed. movement when she used the Trivium to classify the stages of child development, but our application of her insight often muddies the curricular waters. Is logic a stage—a phase of education that encompasses all subjects (e.g., “We call our middle school the ‘Logic School.’”)? Is it a particular academic subject full of Ps, Qs, and fallacies? And what do either of those have to do with truth, with goodness, or with “arts,” liberal or otherwise? In my talk I will give a brief history of the second liberal art—also known as “dialectic”—and make the case that in our further recovery of classical dialectic we stand to gain a broader understanding of how logic fits into every facet of a classical Christian education and a keener sense of our own duty to train up responsible logicians.
Speaker
Sean Johnson actually had a high school philosophy teacher named Plato, and has been devoted to classical education ever since. He is an Oregonian living in Florida, teaching humanities at Trinitas Christian School where he also runs the school’s Classic Film Society and offers the occasional cooking lesson. He holds a BA in the liberal arts from New Saint Andrews College and an MA in English from the University of Dallas. Sean is also executive editor for FORMA journal, a publication of the CiRCE
Institute devoted to classical thought and culture. He and his wife, Heather, have three sons/students and a fourth child waiting in the wings.
Additional Materials
The Association of Classical & Christian Schools presents Repairing the Ruins, the ACCS annual conference, copyright ACCS. You may make additional copies of this recording for use by your school but please do not sell any copies of the recording, or post it on the internet.
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