Essential Logic: The Logical Fallacies

This course follows the organizational theme of the book The Art of Argument, teaching the logical fallacies by category. Corresponding readings from this text are listed within each lesson.

• 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
• Lesson 30
• Lesson 31
• Lesson 32

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 co-founded and serves full time as the CEO/publisher at Classical Academic Press, a classical education curriculum, media, and consulting company. Christopher also serves as 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 B.A. in history from the University of South Carolina and his M.Div. and Ph.D. in apologetics from Westminster Theological Seminary. He was also a special student in literature at St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. He has taught at Messiah College and Chesapeake Theological Seminary, and served as the founding headmaster of a classical school in Harrisburg, PA, for ten years. He is the author of the books An Introduction to Classical Education: A Guide for Parents, The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, and Greek for Children, and he is the co-author of the Latin for Children series published by Classical Academic Press.

Joelle Hodge holds a BA in history/political science from Messiah College in Grantham, PA. She began her career as a staffer to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) before finding her professional home in the world of classical education in 1999. She has more than eighteen years of logic-teaching experience—many of which were spent at a classical school in Harrisburg, PA. 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. Currently, 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. She also serves as Senior Teacher for the online Scholé Academy, where she offers courses in logic, rhetoric, and student-skills development and also assists other Scholé Academy teachers in developing their most productive and inspiring classrooms. Concurrently, Joelle provides year-round, private, multidiscipline tutoring services to a classically educated family living abroad.

Dr. Aaron Larsen has taught logic for several years at a classical school in Harrisburg, PA, as well as at the Regents School of Charlottesville, VA (constituting over ten years of logic-teaching experience). Aaron 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. Aaron holds a BA in history from Covenant College in Tennessee, and a doctor of arts from St. John’s University in Queens, NY.

Please log in or register to enter your course code.

Please Note: ClassicalU is currently developing a certification to accompany our course offerings. The certification credit component of this course is now active but also undergoing refinement and testing.

To obtain a certification credit for this course, simply complete the quiz that follows each presentation in the course, 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 that will demonstrate your understanding this course. When you have completed the course, a certificate that you can print or email will magically appear under the “My Courses” section of this website.

By taking the course for certification credit, you also will be on your way to obtaining a Level 1 certification.