Logic Curriculum - The Fallacy Detective

This was one of the best Christmas presents ever! We received The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Bluedorn & Hans Bluedorn from Mane's former-philosphy-professor grandmother. It had been on our wish list since the beginning of the school year. So, we dug right in as soon as we got it. Lessons are short, straight-forward and much easier to understand than what we were found in An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. Each chapter is one lesson and include cartoons, examples, and a quiz. The quiz at the end of each chapter includes both the newly learned fallacy and all of the fallacies from previous chapters. We can easily cover a chapter in a half an hour, or we can spend a whole morning discussing the example arguments in the quizzes at the end of the chapter. The sample arguments relate to real world issues like belief in God, taxes, the Revolution, education spending, homework, chores, and global warming. 

Recently Mane read a ridiculously horrible parenting article by an expert, who shall remain nameless, and she was able to break the whole 8-page article down using what she knows from the first 12 chapters of The Fallacy Detective. She was so proud of her ability to read something by an adult expert and think about it critically. She wrote a paper describing the difficulties of the article, and we used this as an opportunity to work on writing skills and tactful argument, as well as critical thinking and logic.

Looking forward to the next two-thirds of the book!