If I have mentioned this before, please forgive me, but I think the most worthwhile course I took in college was Elementary Symbolic Logic. That teaches how to parse syllogisms by using symbols for A, not-A, A or B, A and B, etc. It really helps in law, especially in reading codes, where you have to flip back and forth between statutes such as the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA.
But I think everybody could benefit from it. Computer programmers, for sure. Anybody who uses logic as a tool.
I never took a course on rhetoric, but I assume that it's the other kind of logic, teaching about the fallacies of reason. I read up on that on my own, but can't remember all the names so have to look them up a lot. (Like, what is the fallacy of composition? I always have to look that one up. And begging the question is one I tend to get wrong.)
Finally, I have mentioned this before but maybe not to you -- in his Rhetoric Aristotle actually teaches how to use logical fallacies in debate, although that's not the main thrust of his teaching. Logical fallacies can actually be quite powerful with uneducated audiences. |
