News and Views- May 1, 2018

Review: The Art of Reasoning: An Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking – Part 3

by Tasha Stacey

In Part 2 of my review of David Kelley’s book, The Art of Reasoning, I discussed argument analysis, a fundamental skill needed for critical thinking. In everyday language the word “argument” refers to a heated debate, but Kelley defines the term differently as a type of reasoning possessing: (1) a proposition or premise(s), and (2) a conclusion.  This week, I am turning to a rather challenging and essential chapter in that work: Chapter 6, Categorical propositions.

A categorical proposition refers to the relationships among classes. For example:

1.) All men are mortal.

2.) Aristotle is a man.

3.) Therefore, Aristotle is mortal.

This is an example of a categorical syllogism. A categorical syllogism is a deductive argument with two premises, in which the premises and the conclusion are categorical propositions.

The example above is typical of Kelley’s approach where he first presents the basics of the idea or concept and then provides the reader with content and exercises that  move on to more complex concepts and applications e.g., Chapter 8 Reasoning with Syllogisms where he presents further use of this method of reasoning.

If you are a parent and considering using Kelley’s book to supplement what your children are receiving at school, one of the benefits to consider is the high probability that your own use of logic will improve along with your children’s making the process even more dynamic and exciting. By using this approach rather than the method of cramming and memorizing typically used in the public schools you will develop the ability to create in yourself, and your children, a true hierarchy of knowledge and be able to validate and defend that hierarchy with others.

Dissatisfaction with education in the U.S. is increasing  and people across the country are beginning to realize they cannot send their  children off  to education institutions as if they were daycare and assume they will be receiving what they need intellectually.  Our kids are our future and the active participation of parents in their education is critical to that future.  Although at present most schools are failing to provide students with the tools they need to learn, Kelley’s book and the exercises in it can supplement the public school curriculum and  help parents and their children to think outside the box and become truly independent thinkers.

Since my review of this work has been outside a structured educational environment, I have been able to go at my own pace and really study the importance of what Kelley has to offer. I would urge others considering this work to take the time you need to absorb the intellectual gifts it has to offer and truly master the material. What a true gift!

It has been an honor to study and review this great thinker’s work and I look forward to using these tools to inspire and motivate others in developing their reasoning skills and logical faculty.

Editor’s note: It has also been an honor and a pleasure for me to watch Tasha work her way through Kelley’s book and to witness her efforts to express what she has learned. Her response to this project has been everything I could have hoped for. She saw it as an exciting opportunity to gain skills that she can use for a lifetime and to also spread the word about what Kelley’s work has to offer to others.

As an editor, I have also learned during this process. Over time I have realized that our fundamental purpose here is not to recap Kelley’s book point by point, but rather to motivate and, hopefully, inspire readers of this newsletter to purchase Kelley’s book for themselves or someone of importance in their life. We hope to give an inkling of the many intellectual gems Kelley has to offer, but we will not be doing a detailed rehashing of his book because there is no reason to do so with such a profoundly thought out and well written work.

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Tasha Stacey was born (1994) and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado.  She has an entrepreneurial heart and officially opened up her business this year, ServeFlow, LLC. She serves as her clients’ ultimate off-site administrative and/or clerical office assistant  and offers services such as dictation, documentation editing, digital copywriting, and more. In addition, she has built websites, created logos, and managed projects involving writing, marketing, and networking skills.

Dating in a Morally Compromised Culture

I won’t say that dating was simple back when I was young, but it wasn’t exactly rocket science either. If you were a male and interested in a girl you asked her out, and if the girl was interested in you she said yes, and things progressed from there. Maybe physical intimacy came your way, and maybe it didn’t, but either way it  wasn’t treated like something as mundane as mowing the lawn or deciding on what was for dinner that evening.

However, with the confusion caused by postmodern philosophy and its assault on masculinity, femininity, individual identity, and just about everything else that makes life meaningful, confusion reigns supreme.  Postmodern philosophy which permeates much of our culture is an all-out assault on values including the value of intimate relationships.

Ayn Rand referred to values as “that which one acts to gain or keep.” She recognized much earlier than most the ideas infecting American culture by modern schools of philosophy and the damage they were/are causing. She fought against those ideas by creating unforgettable characters in her novels who were willing to go to hell and back to ‘gain or keep’ their values. And the very top values of her main characters were their romantic values, i.e., the man/woman they had chosen. Rand’s timeless view of values, particularly romantic values, continues to be relevant into the present day.

In a recent essay, “New Documentary Explains Why Young People Aren’t Getting Married”  a study of the “hook-up” culture shows the sad state of affairs of those wishing to date today. Boston College professor Kerry Cronin has this to say about it: 

As Cronin points out: “. . . .current culture has succeeded in throwing off the bands of restraint and structure in sexuality, gender, and every other kind of area one can name. . . But as the singles in “The Dating Project” demonstrate, the removal of structure and boundaries has actually made things far more difficult in relationships.”

Thankfully young people are slowly learning to reject the bankrupt ideas surrounding casual sex and learning to value real, meaningful relationships of all types. This is yet another example of why a pro-individualist philosophical framework that nurtures the intelligent selection of values is desperately needed, and no more so than in the realm of dating and intimate relationships. Let us hope these first tentative steps toward reversing the damage done in this vitally important area will continue and perhaps even accelerate.

Note: For information on the nature of postmodern philosophy see: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticsm and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault by Dr. Stephen Hicks.

What School Could Be

Although most of what occurs in the realm of public education is not good, there are still heroic teachers and educators trying their best to educate students as Ted Dintersmith author of What School Could Be reminds us.

In 2015, Dintersmith began a personal odyssey to discover “teachers and children in ordinary circumstances doing extra-ordinary things.” Among his many discoveries during this odyssey were the following realizations:

• In order for students to become independent, self-directed thinkers, they needed to be challenged in a realistic way, and that new knowledge needed to relate to a rapidly innovating world.
• Focusing on  being college-ready impedes learning. There is too much mandated practice and memorization and too few actual learning challenges.   (Note: this is very similar to the approach of the VanDamme Academy established by Lisa VanDamme. For more information on the VanDamme Academy please see: “Education: The Key to Restoring the Republic in America,“
• The best teachers confessed that their training in college to become  teachers did not prepare them to be great teachers.
• Education in America has been declining for many years and the poorly conceived attempt to address it (Common Core) almost destroyed it, but teachers are fighting against it across the nation. (For more on Common Core and its problems see: “The Importance of the Liberal Arts.”

It is very encouraging that teachers in our public schools are independently discovering many of the approaches found and implemented at the VanDamme Academy. This indicates, to me at least, that we need to reach out to these heroic souls who continue to try and educate America’s youth even in the current difficult conditions. By reaching out to these teachers and making them aware of supplementary tools such as The Art of Reasoning and the methods and curriculum of the Vandamme Academy, we can still make progress until such time as we have a renaissance in education in the U.S.

Note: Many thanks to Dr. Jay Lehr in bringing this book to my attention and providing me his recent review of the Ted Dintersmith book. – MG

In Search of the Ideal

Our primary purpose in having Tasha Stacey present her ongoing review of The Art of Reasoning by David Kelley is to identify some of the deficiencies that most of us have in our education, and provide insight into using new intellectual tools that can help address those deficiencies. But although enhancing one’s intellectual tools is vitally important, we still need values and ideals to guide us as we seek to use those tools to create a purposeful, meaningful life.

This is where the humanities such as philosophy and the fine arts can be enormously helpful. Philosophy, specifically the field of ethics, can help individuals develop the honesty and integrity needed to rationally pursue their goals and values. The more significant the value, the more thought and reflection are required to evaluate its place in one’s hierarchy of values. If it is among the highest of our values it may be considered our “ideal” and in this area we often need assistance in developing a concrete image to accompany our abstract ideal. This is where fine art becomes indispensable in helping us find or develop that image.

In her seminal essay, “In Search of the Ideal” from the collection of her essays From the Fountainhead to the Future and other Essays on Art and Excellence, Alexandra York defines an ideal as a “supreme summation of value judgments.”

In my life I was able to find that “supreme summation” nearly 30 years ago when I came across a photograph of the great ballerina Natalia Makarova in a storefront window. While walking quickly across the storefront and hell-bent on some purpose I cannot for the life of me remember I suddenly crossed paths with her photograph and was literally stopped dead in my tracks for a full 15 minutes as I contemplated it in sheer wonder. She was dancing—almost flying—across the stage with her head flung back and arms outstretched behind her in a pose presenting the most exquisite expression of ecstatic joy I had ever witnessed. On that day that image became my spiritual “ideal” of pure, ecstatic joy, and it remains so today. It is what I believe life can and should be, and not a day goes by without my looking at that photograph on the wall of my office with the same sense of wonder and excitement as the day I first viewed it.

I believe that all of us desperately need some such ideal in our lives to inspire and motivate us throughout life. To those searching for such an ideal I would urge you to, first, immerse yourself in Alexandra York’s essay and then refer to it often as you engage in the challenging and deeply spiritual task of finding your own “ideal.”

Note: Unfortunately, the estate of the photographer who took the picture of Natalia Makarova would not release it for reprinting on ROAR’s website, but for those interested in seeing the image, please enter the following into your browser search engine: “Images for Natalia Makarova other dances, 1982.”

Summary

It is our hope that with Tasha Stacey’s ongoing review of The Art of Reasoning readers will understand the value that David Kelley’s book has to offer to people of all ages. Additional optimism regarding education in the U.S. is warranted via the work of Ted Dintersmith where we have observed the continuing heroic attempts of teachers to educate our youth even under the mind-stunting conditions that exist in many public schools.

We’ve also seen the beginnings of recovery in another area of U.S. culture where  modern philosophy has wreaked havoc: romance and sex. These are indications that the “phoenix” is slowly rising from the ashes of our culture and will likely continue. To help the process along, we urge readers to spread the importance of ideals as presented in Alexandra York’s seminal essay “In Search of the Ideal.”

Because of the happenings listed above, and more, at ROAR we strongly believe that America will find her way, and we will do everything in our power to help that process along.

Sincerely,

Mike Gemmell