THE TEACHING OF LOGIC. 143 



THE TEACHING OF LOGIC. 



By Professor ARTHUR H. DANIELS, 



UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 



IT is a well-known fact that logic is not so generally studied to-day 

 as formerly, and that, on the whole, the attitude towards its edu- 

 cational value is one of indifference. If, however, we try to account 

 for its present status in our colleges by granting that logic is an in- 

 herently difficult and uninteresting subject, our explanation is both 

 inadequate and unfair to the subject itself. True, logic does require 

 a distinctively analytic and reflective quality of mind. It does not 

 afford the possibility that some subjects do, of getting through it by 

 leaning upon memory, or by appropriating the thoughts of another; 

 but, on the other hand, it constantly demands a conscious effort to 

 think, in the absence of those substitutes for thinking things out for 

 themselves which the weak and lazy-minded resort to. True, logic can 

 make no exclusive claim to being an intellectual discipline. Other 

 academic studies furnish just as severe tests of mental power. The 

 real truth of the matter is that the formal conception and abstract 

 presentation of logic are responsible for a large share of its unattract- 

 iveness and needless difficulties. 



"What I have to write has reference only to elementary or introduc- 

 tory logic. As to the metaphysics or the higher problems of logic I 

 have nothing to say, in this connection, save to express my firm belief 

 that the less an elementary course in logic has to do with metaphysical 

 questions the better. In fact, the discredit into which logic has fallen 

 is in part due to the teaching of the subject from the philosophic stand- 

 point. To hold the place that it deserves in the college curriculum, 

 logic must be shown to have some practical value. I know that this 

 word is in disfavor. We are told of the mathematician who thanked 

 heaven that he had at last discovered a truth which no one would ever 

 be able to make any use of. Perhaps this seeker after truth was but 

 voicing the common antipathy for the word practical. If it is a hope- 

 lessly obnoxious term, why not adopt a word used by President Eliot 

 and then always aim to make truth serviceable? It is my purpose in 

 this article to point out some changes in the mode of presenting logic, 

 whereby it may be modernized and made an attractive and useful under- 

 graduate study. 



In the first place, the definition of logic should convey to the be- 



