Unit I: Basic Clarity of Thinking and Communication
IN THIS LESSON
Agenda
You can do the first Quill Diagnostic in class here as needed
Questions on Quill?
Questions on essay?
Questions on Material Logic Lesson 1: Complete in class if time; push students in terms of clarity, completeness, and precision—this is writing instruction; these basic skills will become very important when they get into full-length argument and analysis essays.
New vocabulary game/review
Start on Material Logic (ML) 2–again, in class have them write answers. This is to make sure they are doing their own work and understanding the lesson (they tend to share answers when it is assigned for homework…this is just to get them started on the right track).
Homework
Quill packets or Quill Diagnostic next level, depending on what happened to each student with the first one
Finish ML Logic 1 questions, read 2; draft questions
Summer reading essay
Notes
1. Vocabulary Review: You can play any game you like for vocab review…at this point, we’ve got the following: , dialectic, common opinion (doxa), opinion of the wise (endoxa), probable knowledge (deixis), certain knowledge (apodeixis), ethos, science (body of knowledge, area of discovery), art (tool/skill to work on human soul or on the sciences),natural science, social science, theology, philosophy, grammar, logic, rhetoric, poetics.
2. Notes on Material Logic Lesson 2:
This lesson covers the “three classes of goods”: this is an essential distinction in the study of reality AND an important tool in argument, perhaps most especially in definition. When we looked at the way Harari defines a human (inferred, of course), and the ways in which Zamperini and Immaculee define themselves as humans, one can see the classes of goods come into play. In which class of goods does Harari place human beings?
This mistake that Harari makes means that he doesn’t think there is anything beyond, or above “useful” and “useful and desirable” or that human beings, at least, do not rise above these categories: without use, there are no goods. However, is he right?
In this lesson, truth is the thing at issue: is truth desirable in itself—not only for some other end, though of course sometimes this is the case. To follow argument courageously, to find the truth, no matter where it leads us, is the deepest reason to study logic…and it is the foundation for dialectic, argument, and indeed, good rhetoric: good communication.
This classification of goods is often an underlying premise one can infer from the conclusions someone makes, or their actions.
The section on distinguishing between language used grammatically or logically is important, because hopefully the students will begin to understand that our grammatical structure reflects how we think, how we conceptualize. The teacher can highlight this.
The very basic sentences used (being and linking verbs, simple actions) are some of the “five fundamentals” and will relate later to how we categorize to define (genus/species) and to how we express qualities/accidentals (actions, qualities). The goal is twofold:
Learn to see the “correctness” of grammar directly relates to truth, how we see the world
Understand therefore for that their use of language holds the weight of reality, of truth, and is the major means we have to share reality with each other.
The last section of this lesson defines truth : this is an extremely important point and so a little dialectic about this is encouraged, if time. Students may not have heard this definition, and might be used to the idea of truth as one’s own individual perception of things…the idea of being, ultimately, subject to reality, is an uncomfortable thought for modern people. One’s experience cannot be argued with by others, and people have different experiences of even the same event, of course, but ultimately, there is a holistic, comprehensive reality that is the ultimate judge (and this is God’s view).
So—as we work through logic, strengthening our rational faculties, creating better arguments (lines of reasoning), we are always on the search for the truth, for the reality, and to bring our minds into accord with reality.
Remember also, as you work through this text, to remind them that they are picking up some valuable vocabulary for argument, and that as their own thinking becomes more clear, so will their writing—and their reading ability. Sometimes they can lose sight of why we’re doing this in an English class, and they haven’t yet seen the fruits of it, so helping them “see ahead” a bit is important.