Essential Logic: The Logical Fallacies
with Dr. Christopher Perrin, Joelle Hodge, and Dr. Aaron LarsenWelcome!
This course is a thorough introduction to the logical fallacies, organized by fallacies of relevance, presumption, and purpose. In our view, every classical instructor from kindergarten to 12th grade should be familiar with the logical fallacies and how they apply to all learning. This course will provide that skill and acquaint educators with this fundamental liberal art. What is more, this course features 3 veteran logic teachers in action teaching a group of 4 8th-grade students. Therefore, you will learn not only the study of informal logic, but also how to teach it by observing Dr. Christopher Perrin, Joelle Hodge, and Dr. Aaron Larsen.
This course carefully follows the book The Art of Argument: An Introduction to the Logical Fallacies. We highly recommend purchasing the text for reference throughout the course.
Instructional Hours: 10.27, CEU Credits: 1
- Introduction
Ad Fontem Arguments (personal attacks)
- Lesson 1: Ad Hominem Abusive
- Lesson 2: Ad Hominem Circumstantial
- Lesson 3: Tu Quoque
- Lesson 4: Genetic Fallacy
Appeals to Emotion
- Lesson 5: Appeal to Fear (Argumentum Ad Baculum)
- Lesson 6: Appeal to Pity (Argumentum Ad Misericordiam)
- Lesson 7: Mob Appeal (Argumentum Ad Populum)
- Lesson 8: Snob Appeal
- Lesson 9: Appeal to Illegitimate Authority (Argumentum Ad Verecundiam)
- Lesson 10: Chronological Snobbery
Red Herrings
- Lesson 11: Appeal to Ignorance
- Lesson 12: Irrelevant Goals and Functions
- Lesson 13: Irrelevant Thesis
- Lesson 14: Straw Man Fallacy
Fallacies of Presupposition
- Lesson 15: Begging the Question (Petitio Principii)
- Lesson 16: Bifurcation (False Dilemma)
- Lesson 17: Fallacy of Moderation
- Lesson 18: Is-Ought Fallacy
- Lesson 19: Fallacy of Composition
- Lesson 20: Fallacy of Division
Fallacies of Induction
- Lesson 21: Sweeping Generalization (Accident)
- Lesson 22: Hasty Generalization (Converse Accident)
- Lesson 23: False Analogy
- Lesson 24: False Cause
- Lesson 25: Fake Precision
Fallacies of Clarity
- Lesson 26: Equivocation
- Lesson 27: Accent
- Lesson 28: Distinction Without a Difference
Additional Lessons
- Lesson 29: The Frenetic Fallacy (Extra)
- Discussion: Meet the Students
- Discussion: Four Students, Full of Fallacies

Dr. Christopher Perrin is an author, consultant, and speaker who specializes in classical education. He is committed to the renewal of the liberal arts tradition. He cofounded and serves full-time as the CEO/publisher at Classical Academic Press, a classical education curriculum, media, and consulting company. Christopher is also a consultant to charter, public, private, and Christian schools across the country. He serves on the board of the Society for Classical Learning and as the director of the Alcuin Fellowship of classical educators. He has published numerous articles and lectures that are widely used throughout the United States and the English-speaking world.
Christopher received his BA in history from the University of South Carolina and his MDiv and PhD in apologetics from Westminster Theological Seminary. He was also a special student in literature at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He has taught at Messiah College and Chesapeake Theological Seminary, and served as the founding headmaster of a classical school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for ten years. He is the author of An Introduction to Classical Education, The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, and Greek for Children, and the coauthor of the Latin for Children series, all published by Classical Academic Press.
Joelle Hodge holds a BA in history/political science from Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania, and is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Eastern University’s Templeton Honors College. She began her career as a staffer to United States Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) before finding her professional home in the world of classical education in 1999. She has 20 years of teaching experience—several of which were spent at a classical school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There she also developed much of their logic and rhetoric curricula. She has coauthored two logic books, The Art of Argument: An Introduction to the Informal Fallacies and The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic, both published by Classical Academic Press (CAP), and continues to support various editorial projects at CAP, but her primary focus is on the growth and development of Scholé Academy, where she serves as the principal. Since the inception of Scholé Academy in 2014, Joelle has taught courses across a variety of disciplines, including math, logic, and rhetoric, as well as a course in student-skills development (How to Be a Student). She served as senior teacher for Scholé Academy before stepping into the role of academy principal in 2018. Additionally, Classical Academic Press hosts Joelle’s consultant offerings, where she engages with educators across the country, tailoring workshops for classical schools and co-ops that seek to train their teachers in the fundamentals of dialectic- and rhetoric-stage pedagogy.
Dr. Aaron Larsen currently teaches history, Latin, logic, and rhetoric at Regents School of Charlottesville in Virginia. He previously taught at two classical schools in Pennsylvania. In 2001, Dr. Larsen joined a team led by Dr. Christopher Perrin and two other colleagues to help form Classical Academic Press. The motivation behind this endeavor was to produce exceptional Latin and logic curricula for the classical education movement. The first results of this collaboration included the publication of their logic text, The Art of Argument, and the three-volume Latin for Children series. Aaron is also a coauthor of The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic.
Aaron received his BA in history, with minors in philosophy and education, from Covenant College in Georgia. He completed his coursework for his DA in modern world history from St. John’s University in New York and went on to write his doctoral thesis on the Meiji Restoration, which, as he likes to say, is “the most important event in world history that nobody’s ever heard of.”
To obtain a certification credit for this course, simply complete each presentation lesson or discussion in the course (by marking it complete or by taking the quiz) and then also take the certification test at the end of the course. The quizzes are designed to ensure that you have understood the essential content of each presentation, and they can be taken more than once if necessary. The cumulative certification test at the end of the course is given as a pass/fail test and requires that you upload one or more essays demonstrating your understanding of the course. (Please note that essays are simply evaluated by word count.) When you have completed the course, a certificate that you can print or email will become available within “My Courses” (accessible under “Courses” in the main menu when you are signed in as an active subscriber).
We recommend previewing the essay question within the end of course test before starting the course. This will help in guiding your note taking as you progress through the course. Please allow approximately 2 weeks for essay submissions to be reviewed.
By taking the course for certification credit, you also will be on your way to obtaining a Level 1 certification.
Lessons

Essential Logic: The Logical Fallacies—Course Introduction

Lesson 1: Ad Hominem Abusive
Preview
Lesson 2: Ad Hominem Circumstantial
Preview
Lesson 3: Tu Quoque
Preview
Lesson 4: Genetic Fallacy
Lesson 4: Genetic Fallacy Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 5: Appeal to Fear (Argumentum Ad Baculum)
Lesson 5: Appeal to Fear (Argumentum Ad Baculum) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 6: Appeal to Pity (Argumentum Ad Misericordiam)
Lesson 6: Appeal to Pity (Argumentum Ad Misericordiam) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 7: Mob Appeal (Argumentum Ad Populum)
Lesson 7: Mob Appeal (Argumentum Ad Populum) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 8: Snob Appeal
Lesson 8: Snob Appeal Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 9: Appeal to Illegitimate Authority (Argumentum Ad Verecundiam)
Lesson 9: Appeal to Illegitimate Authority (Argumentum Ad Verecundiam) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 10: Chronological Snobbery
Lesson 10: Chronological Snobbery Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 11: Appeal to Ignorance
Lesson 11: Appeal to Ignorance Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 12: Irrelevant Goals and Functions
Lesson 12: Irrelevant Goals and Functions Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 13: Irrelevant Thesis
Lesson 13: Irrelevant Thesis Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 14: Straw Man Fallacy
Lesson 14: Straw Man Fallacy Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 15: Begging the Question (Petitio Principii)
Lesson 15: Begging the Question (Petitio Principii) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 16: Bifurcation (False Dilemma)
Lesson 16: Bifurcation (False Dilemma) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 17: Fallacy of Moderation
Lesson 17: Fallacy of Moderation Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 18: Is-Ought Fallacy
Lesson 18: Is-Ought Fallacy Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 19: Fallacy of Composition
Lesson 19: Fallacy of Composition Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 20: Fallacy of Division
Lesson 20: Fallacy of Division Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 21: Sweeping Generalization (Accident)
Lesson 21: Sweeping Generalization (Accident) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 22: Hasty Generalization (Converse Accident)
Lesson 22: Hasty Generalization (Converse Accident) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 23: False Analogy
Lesson 23: False Analogy Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 24: False Cause
Lesson 24: False Cause Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 25: Fake Precision
Lesson 25: Fake Precision Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 26: Equivocation
Lesson 26: Equivocation Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 27: Accent
Lesson 27: Accent Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 28: Distinction without a Difference
Lesson 28: Distinction without a Difference Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Lesson 29: The Frenetic Fallacy (Extra)
Lesson 29: The Frenetic Fallacy (Extra) Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Discussion: Meet the Students
Discussion: Meet the Students Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

Discussion: Four Students, Full of Fallacies
Discussion: Four Students, Full of Fallacies Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.

End of Course Test: The Logical Fallacies
End of Course Test: The Logical Fallacies Please sign up for the course before starting the lesson.