Creative Logic

Though I disagree with some of the philosophical underpinnings of the Fahnestock and Secor article, I found their treatment of the role of critical logic to be quite accurate. They assert, "As readers we push at arguments, testing the expressed and articulating the submerged assumptions of fact, definition, or value in order to accept or reject them. That is what it means to be sensitive to language in argument: to be aware of facts that are assumed significant, to notice definitions that might be slippery or inadequate, to pick out values that might be implicit in word choice and metaphor" (62). These "reading" skills are equally "writing" skills, since we are both the writers and readers of our own thoughts. Sensitivity to issues of word choice, definition, and figurative language are requisite, not only for critique, but also for composition (because composition is nothing if not continual self-critique). These are some of the reasons that I am unwilling to consider logic as somehow separate from the sphere of essay writing -- as if the two were separable.

Therefore, I hold to the notion that logic (in an abbreviated form) should be introduced in any class that claims to deal with "composition and exposition." Though it's alway possible that my theoretical conclusions will be falsified by my actual experience -- in which case it would be only logical to adjust them accordingly.