Madsen Pirie

A short guide to winning arguments

Madsen Pirie says that logic and a few Latin terms can help you destroy any challenger in intellectual confrontation

issue 22 April 2006

When I taught logic at an American university, the chief problem was to entice students to take the course. The smorgasbord approach they used to build a degree meant that students wanted things which might be useful to them, or ones they might be good at. Logic, alas, was perceived as neither, and classes were largely made up of very bright students who were not afraid of it and who thought it might be fun.

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