Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

All those classical terms don’t seem very useful—what does modus ponens even mean? And what was the difference between inductive and deductive, again? Today on Home School Heartbeat with HSLDA President Mike Smith, Professor Doug Geivett brings the academic discipline of logic down to earth.

Logic Resource Sheet

Are you ready to explore logic in your homeschool? Our Logic Resource Sheet lists many resources for various learning levels, including Dr. Geivett’s recommendations. Request our free Logic Resource Sheet by clicking the link below.

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Mike Smith:
Doug, often it’s hard to see how logic is relevant to our lives. Can you give us an example or two of how we might use logical forms in everyday life?

Doug Geivett:
Well, we use logic and reasoning in pretty much everything we do. One example is when we encounter something that’s unusual or puzzling, and we don’t quite know what the explanation is. We can shrug it off and say, well, it’s trivial, it doesn’t really matter. But our children are watching, and we can show them how critical thinking works by asking them, what do you think is the explanation for this? Why is there this glistening little track on the pavement? Was it caused by an animal? Is it part of the pavement? Is it just an accident? Is there an explanation for it? Turns out that there’s a snail, a few inches away. Ahh, maybe the snail had something to do with it.

We look for explanations for the things that we see, and by doing this on a regular basis through the routine of our day, we are inculcating in our children intellectual curiosity and a method for finding out answers to questions about what is interesting and puzzling about our world.

Mike:
That’s very interesting, and very helpful to our listeners. And thank you so much for being with us again today! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.