In a couple weeks I’ll be taking David Gordon’s “How to Think: An Introduction to Logic.” Words can’t describe how excited I am. This is like telling a kid, “hey, you get to go to Disneyland for 7 weeks!” or, well, I’m not sure what can compare to the uber amazing thought of taking this course. David Gordon wrote a great article about his course for Mises Daily, you can read it here. That’s what got me really going about how fantastic this course will be.
I took a formal logic class a couple years ago and really loved it. I still use the classical syllogism (and of course, the “therefore” symbol, WordPress doesn’t have it, but Mac Pages does, it is just a triangle of 3 small dots, but I use it a lot, even in informal situations) when I’m confused about an argument. So I’m excited at the thought of getting to do more formal logic (I just hope there aren’t a ton of logic proofs to do, I’m not very fond of those) just for the fun of it. But then Prof. Gordon is going to apply that logic to political philosophy and economics, analyzing common fallacies that come up when people argue against a free market, etc…Here’s a quote from the article:
We will discuss a number of other common fallacies, and by the end of the course, you should be able to diagnose the mistakes of most of the arguments you encounter. The course emphasizes class participation: you are encouraged to send in arguments that you would like analyzed. If you do, I’ll go over them with the class.
How great is that? And beware…after this class I’ll be able to convince everyone that I’m right…by using logic too! 😉
This will also be my first “real” live course. Ever. In anything. I’ve taken live lectures before, but they don’t have exams, homework, and the like. I’ve had exams and homework but it has just been from a book and not from a teacher or professor. It is very exciting, and will be a challenge, but I like difficult things. 🙂
And of course, it would be more fun if you joined the class too! Why not?
