Logic Made Accessible

Under the supervision of Professor Katja Vogt, a member of the philosophy faculty at Columbia University, we have designed a 35-lesson curriculum to introduce students to the foundations of logic and reasoning. From the original framework developed by Aristotle in his Organon – texts with many present-day applications – we extrapolate to important notions in modern logic. Topics range from syllogisms to fallacies, from types of inferences to applications of Aristotelian principles in day-to-day cases. Exercises, activities, and examples are key focuses in each lesson, together with clear lesson goals specifically outlining the takeaways for every session. Resisting misinformation, evaluating the reliability and cogency of arguments and opinions from public figures, having good standards of evidence for the information we accept as valid and trustworthy – to think critically and rigorously today is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. The state of our world brings the importance of clear-headed thinking to the forefront quite seriously. The individual critical responsibility of each and every one of us is heftier than ever. Fortunately, we have ways to address it effectively. Studying logic gives us a language for structuring, taking apart, and evaluating information; the earlier we start down this path, the more natural it becomes to think rigorously. This is the point of our project – to give high school students the tools to separate the substance from the background noise.