Why Formal Logic is Essential

for Critical Thinking}

DONALD HATCHER Baker University

Abstract: After critiquing the arguments Resume: Je critique les arguments

against using formal logic to teach critical avances contre I'usage de la logique
thinking, this paper argues that for theoreti- formelle dans la formation de la pensee
cal, practical, and empirical reasons, instruc- critique. Ensuite j'avance des raisons
tion in the fundamentals of formal logic is theoriques, pratiques et empiriques pour
essential for critical thinking, and so should montrer que I' enseignement des rudiments
be included in every class that purports to de la logique formelle est essen tiel aune
teach critical thinking. telle formation, et que ceux-ci devraient
donc s'enseigner dans tous les cours
censes de former la pensee critique.

Keywords: critical thinking, formal logic, informal logic, composition, critical writing,
critical thinking assessment, critical thinking pedagogy

1. Introduction
In a time when the nature and value of rationality have come into question, when
minds, both young and old, appear to be ruled more by the forces of media
manipulation or political rhetoric than by rational reflection, and when, according
to a survey by the National Science Foundation, more Americans believe in as-
trology than in evolution, the critical thinking movement appeared to be the long-
awaited voice of sanity crying in a wilderness of irrationality. The very idea that
large numbers of educators from across the disciplines were unabashedly claim-
ing that students should, above all else, be taught to think critically stirred new
hope in many of our hearts. What, other than the development of critical ration-
ality, could be a more fitting goal for the education of human beings (as opposed
to apes or parrots) in a democratic society?
In spite of the great potential of such renewed interest in developing students'
rational capacities, there are, I believe, certain trends within the critical thinking
movement that harm its potential effectiveness and diminish its continued appeal
in the wider circles of education.2 One of these is a failure of critical thinking
texts and courses to emphasize the importance of formal logic. While major
figures in the critical thinking movement have offered a number of reasons to

© Injormal Logic Vol. 19, No.1 (1999): pp.77-89.

78 Donald Hatcher

ignore or minimize instruction in the fundamentals of formal logic, I shall argue

that such instruction is essential because it enhances students' abilities to under-
stand, analyze, evaluate and articulate arguments-skills I hold essential to critical
thinking. Hence, instruction in the fundamentals of formal logic should be an es-
sential part of every critical thinking course.
By instruction in formal logic, I mean teaching the rudiments of sentential
logic, with perhaps a minimum dose of quantification theory--just enough to legiti-
mate inferences between universal, "for all x," statements and particular, "This is
an x," statements. The courses should also show students how complex argu-
ments can be paraphrased and put into standard argument form such as modus
ponens, modus tol/ens, and hypothetical and disjunctive syllogisms. Such an ap-
proach is useful for evaluating arguments, that is, determining their validity, iden-
tifYing missing premises or assumptions, and determining premise adequacy. This
approach to argument evaluation is more useful than spending a lot of time on
informal fallacies, which is often the focus of a critical thinking text. In fact,
informal fallacies are of limited use when it comes to argument evaluation. Take,
for example, a typical argument: that homosexuality is immoral because it is un-
natural. There is no obvious informal fallacy here. But persons with minimum
training in a formal approach to argument evaluation will see that this is an
enthymeme missing the major premise that, "If something is unnatural, then it is
morally wrong." Once this is pointed out, the argument is no longer the least bit
convincing because the major premise is blatantly false; i.e., if being unnatural
made something morally wrong, then playing the viola or using synthetic drugs to
treat illness would be immoraJ.l With a minimal understanding offormallogic, the
problem with the argument is readily apparent; without such training, it is not clear
exactly what is wrong with the argument, except perhaps some vague claim that
the premise is not adequate or sufficient for the conclusion.
What follows is, first, a critical evaluation of some of the arguments given for
not including instruction in formal logic in a critical thinking class. I shall then
conclude the paper by offering reasons why it makes good pedagogical sense to
include it.

2. Some Criticisms of Formal Logic

As those of you who have examined many of the critical thinking texts know,
these texts (perhaps in an attempt to separate themselves from the traditional logic
courses of old) tend pretty much to ignore instruction in formal logic. In so doing,
they omit the formal character of reasoning which links logic to the methods of
such disciplines as mathematics and science. 4 For the most part, symbols are kept
to a minimum, and there is no systematic treatment of symbolic logic. Analyses of
such concepts as "logical form" and "entailment" are either missing or treated in
an intuitive manner, relying on students' ability to imagine counter-examples to the
kind of argument in question-an ability that few students seem to possess.
 Why Formal Logic is Essential for Critical Thinking 79

The sins of omission are further complicated because some important writers
in the critical thinking movement go so far as to speak out against formal logic as
an adequate tool for critical thinking. For example, a few years ago, at the end of
a thought-provoking paper on the importance of being aware of our background
logics when making arguments, Richard Paul, concludes that, "The history of
disciplines with their procedures and notational emphasis fails to provide an orga-
non for everyday critical thought. We live as inferential beings enveloped in
unformulated, deeply behavioral background logics. The logical system of the
schools has little to do with the logic we live."5 That is, according to Paul, the
organon of formal logic, begun with Aristotle, is not adequate to deal with the
decisions and disagreements of real life. Rather than suggest ways that a formal
approach to argument analysis might be revised to deal with "real world prob-
lems"-an approach I would recommend-Paul recommends a dialectical analy-
sis void of any clear formal procedures.
Even if we grant that formal logic does not mirror how people actually argue
and that the symbols and their "truth-values" have little to do with real life, what is
wrong with Paul's position? One problem is a failure to distinguish between the
actual practice of argumentation and critical thinking, and the normative standards
that should guide such critical discussions. We engage in many human practices,
but it does not follow that we "ought" to do them the way we do. For example,
nine out of ten (honest) golfers have golf swings that will not allow them consist-
ently to break 100. It does not follow, however, that they oUght to swing in that
way, or that the 10% who have good swings cannot criticize those found lacking.
In an analogous fashion, real world disagreements may be complicated and messy,
but it does not follow that they cannot be clarified, making explicit people's as-
sumptions or Paul's "background logic" and then evaluated along the lines pre-
scribed in the beginning of the paper; i.e., put in standard form and checked for
validity and the relevance and reasonableness of the premises.
Second, it would seem that Paul's prescribed dialectical approach to evaluating
competing positions must itself assume some set of standards or "rules for dis-
cussion" in order for members of the discussion to know when a position has
been adequately defended or should be rejected. I would suggest that beneath the
informal rules for acceptability and rejection are the general rules of inference in
formal logic and the canons for empirical research of the sciences-both physical
and social. 6 Without clear notions of "validity," "entailment," and scientific induc-
tive logic, how can discussants "tell what follows" or know when a premise is
acceptable with respect to evidence? Even if we begin with some version of an
informal or dialectical approach to critical thinking, formal logic still has an essen-
tial role to play in helping us determine when a position is to be accepted or re-
jected.
Another example of such anti-formalist sentiments is given by Kerry Walters.
Walters accuses typical critical thinkers of adopting a kind of methodological ab-
80 Donald Hatcher

solutism or "analytic reductionism." He claims (although I don't believe this actu-

ally happens) that in the typical critical thinking course, "One reduces an argument
to its simplest constitutive propositional elements, examines these elements indi-
vidually for truth-value and the relation to one another for logical form, and then
decides whether the argument is good or bad.'" This, he believes, is an unaccept-
able procedure. It assumes a sort of "methodological absolutism" which is unwar-
ranted and misleading. In other words, he believes there must be other acceptable
ways to evaluate the reasonableness of a position. In an almost Kierkegaardian
spirit, both Walters and Paul believe that "life's complexity" precludes analysis by
the techniques of formal logic.
Neither Walters nor Paul shows in any detail just what the problem is or gives
examples of arguments that cannot be paraphrased and then translated into stand-
ard form for evaluation. If the problem is the complexity of everyday discourse,
this is a practical problem, and there is nothing inherently unintelligible about
analyzing complex arguments into their parts and ultimately into standard logical
patterns of premises and conclusions. 8 This very process seems to me to be what
many of Socrates's exchanges in the dialogues were all about: getting clear, for
purposes of evaluation, on just what the person's position was, and then evaluat-
ing the reasons the person had for holding the position.
If the complaint is that the discourse of real life does not resemble the argu-
ments found in a typical logic or critical thinking text, this can be solved by teach-
ing students the skills of careful analysis and paraphrasing. If, in the course of a
day's reading, there do not appear to be instances of valid deductive arguments,
that does not mean arguments cannot be put in standard form-assuming the
reader knows how-and then evaluated. One might also ask, why should the
unstructured prose of the modem media be students' paradigm of good thinking?
There are numerous classic texts that clearly exemplify valid argument patterns, if
students are only taught to look; e.g., such Platonic dialogues as the Crito, and
Meno, "The Declaration of Independence," some of the Federalist Papers, and
hoards of essays by philosophers.
A third criticism of the use of formal logic in a critical thinking class comes
from my students. Currently, many students are put off by mathematics. Upon
taking my critical thinking course they have often told me that formal logic, with
its symbolic notation and formulae, "looks a lot like math." I do not believe such a
criticism to be unique to my university. Hence, in order not further to alienate
thOse students who are intimidated by math, critical thinking texts avoid any ex-
tensive use of symbols.9
Nonetheless, even if some students have trouble with symbolic notation, to
give up a useful tool for seeing the structure of arguments or structuring our own
arguments is pandering to the desires of the weaker members of our educational
community. If the symbolic techniques of formal logic are a valuable educational
 Why Formal Logic is Essentialfor Critical Thinking 81

tool, then they should be used. When students come to us no longer able to read
well, will we then give up assigning books? One fears to think of the answer.
Fourth, members of the critical thinking movement tend to believe that the
traditional logic courses of old-Mental Gymnastics 10 I-did very little to equip
students to deal with the hard decisions we all frequently confront "in real life."
The story is told of Howard Kahane teaching a traditional logic course in the 1960s
when a student asked how formal logic would help him decide whether to go to
the Vietnam War. Kahane did not have an answer and so set out to write a new
logic text, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday
Life, now in its seventh edition.1O This argument against formal logic as a useful
tool for critical thinkers is a strong one. One of the often-stated goals of critical
thinking courses is to help students decide not only what to believe, but what to
do. I1 But, if the formal symbolic methods of the old courses in logic were ineffec-
tive with respect to such decision-making, then it would seem reasonable to focus
on non-symbolic approaches to argument analysis.
My question here is simple. Is there something inherently inadequate about
formal logic, in its most general sense, that makes it ineffective in decision-mak-
ing? I have not seen the arguments. If decision-making means the critical evalua-
tion of alternatives with respect to consequences, what better way to eliminate an
alternative than the combination of disjunctive syllogism and modus toliens, where
the latter forces us to focus on the unacceptable consequences of one of the
alternatives? Rather than writing a book on informal logic, perhaps Kahane would
have done well to see just what part of formal logic was useful for decision mak-
ing and what part, i.e., proofs, should be left out. Hence, for the purposes of
gaining popular acceptance for such an unquestionably valuable educational goal
as critical thinking, non- formal approaches may indeed have merit. However, as
we shall see, what is gained in popularity is far outweighed by other pedagogical
considerations.
One final reason given to reject the use of formal logic in critical thinking
instruction is that my own research, using pre- and post-testing, indicates that
students who take a one-semester course in formal logic actually do worse on a
standardized critical thinking test having taken formal logic. 12 Students in an intro-
ductory logic class using Copi's text were given pre- and post-tests of the Ennis-
Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test. They scored one point lower on the post-test
than on the pre-test. One could easily conclude that formal logic undermines stu-
dents' critical thinking abilities and so should be ignored.
If the course in formal logic spent most ofthe time on truth tables, quantifica-
tion theory, or proofs, rather than paraphrasing arguments and putting them in
standard form for evaluation, then the results are not surprising. Such logic courses
may well confuse students rather than empowering them. As the data summariz-
ing the study show,13 students who are given instruction in the fundamentals of
82 Donald Hatcher

fonnallogic and shown how logic can be used to understand and evaluate argu-
ments made significant gains on the Ennis-Weir test.
So it seems that if these are the typical arguments against using fonnallogic in
a critical thinking course, the conclusion not to do so is not supported by either the
arguments or evidence. First, critics offonnallogic's role in critical thinking (Paul
and Walters) have not shown that it is impossible to paraphrase complex argu-
ments and put them in standard fonn for evaluation. Second, it seems that infor-
mal rules to guide critical discussions can be reduced to well-understood princi-
ples of fonnal logic. Third, research data indicates that, while fonnal logic that is
not applied to analyzing and constructing real arguments has little positive effect,
knowledge of the fundamentals of fonnal logic and its application to argument
analysis and evaluation do help students become better critical thinkers.
What, though, are some pedagogical and conceptual arguments for the use of
fonnal logic? The remainder of my paper will offer a kind of teleological argu-
ment, beginning with what I believe is the end or ideal toward which courses in
critical thinking aspire, and showing, given the end, that an efficient means to
attain it will include teaching the fundamentals offonnal logic.

3. The Importance of Formal Logic for Critical Thinking

What then, in a most general sense, is the goal of teaching critical thinking? While
there is considerable quibbling over this important question,14 I believe most would
agree that, at a minimum, the goal for critical thinking instruction is to teach
students to be reasonable, that is, to appeal to reason as much as possible, in
examining beliefs and making decisions that affect their lives. While such a con-
ception of critical thinking is in accord with Harvey Siegel's idea that critical think-
ers are people who are "appropriately moved by reasons,"15 such a conception
also implies that, as persons for whom reason guides their decisions, critical think-
ers should seek out alternative positions and evaluate them honestly before they
make a choice. 16 It seems obvious that, wherever possible, unless one has looked
at alternative accounts or positions, and honestly evaluated them, one cannot say
one has chosen wisely. Choosing without looking at the available alternatives would
be like buying a car without driving other models, but yet claiming to have made
the best choice.
How, though, does one go about evaluating alternatives with respect to their
reasonableness? And, more importantly, what role does fonnallogic play in the
process? The process of rational evaluation, I believe, contains three steps: clari-
fication, evaluation, and articulation.!7 The first step requires that we clarify and so
clearly understand the position to be evaluated. To quote Bob Dylan, "Don't criti-
cize what you don't understand." Obviously, such clarification can be tedious and
difficult, especially when the claims are imbedded in the ill-fonned rhetoric of
much everyday discourse. But if evaluation is to occur, "getting clear" is essential.
 Why Formal Logic is Essential for Critical Thinking 83

This conception of "getting clear" implies that we learn to see claims as con-
clusions to arguments, and the reasons given for the claims as premises intended
for support. In other words, to evaluate an alternative position is to tum the posi-
tion into an argument. The evaluation of the position is the second stage of critical
thinking. Argument evaluation is complex. (In fact, perhaps with beginning stu-
dents, we would be wise consciously to keep the arguments as simple as possi-
ble.) It can involve identifying hidden assumptions, presuppositions, or one's "back-
ground logic," as Richard Paul suggests. Upon closer analysis, unclear or ambigu-
ous terms may be discovered. But beyond these difficult tasks, that no doubt
require a good deal of practice, one must also have some way to tell if the premises
adequately support the conclusion. It is important to see is that the critical evalua-
tion of a belief-as all evaluation-assumes that the person engaged in the evalua-
tion possesses some set of standards or tools by which he or she conducts the
evaluation and arrives at a reasoned judgment. When evaluating arguments, such
standards must, at a minimum, allow the persons to distinguish between "good
arguments" and "bad arguments." Beliefs, then, which are reasonable to hold may
be those beliefs which are the conclusions to good arguments. Beliefs which are
unreasonable to hold are those which are not self-evident or for which no good
argument has been provided}8 We might conclude, then, that reasonable persons
are those who, after evaluating alternative positions, adopt those which have strong
logical support, and who are at least skeptical of positions where such support is
lacking. But such a private process of evaluation is not enough.
The final step in the critical thinking process is articulation, that is, presenting
the evaluation process that led to one's conclusion. By carefully explaining the
process that led to the conclusion one can more easily evaluate the reasonableness
of the position, and, more importantly, share it with others for their critical com-
ments. Stating arguments clearly is essential if others are to examine our ideas.
When it comes to objective criticism, we are often our worst enemies (as our
publishers never get tired of pointing out). As Ralph Johnson has said, contrary to
those who emphasize the self-correcting aspect of critical thinking, critical think-
ing is best done in a community of inquirers. To publicly submit our ideas to
criticism requires that we can articulate them and their supporting reasons so that
others may understand and critique our ideas. 19
If we accept this minimal description of the goals and methods of critical
thinking, the question is: What means are most adequate in achieving these goals?
As I have just argued, it seems any sort of critical evaluation requires knowledge
and application of some standard for judgment. Without some standard, the per-
son has no way of giving a justification for adopting one position over an alterna-
tive.
When students are asked to develop such a standard,20 there are at least three
options: Either we use the informal techniques present in the typical critical think-
ing text or we explain how to evaluate arguments through the methods and con-
 84 Donald Hatcher

cepts offormallogic, or we employ some combination. Now, it seems that to use

only formal logic would be a mistake. To ignore informal fallacies could possibly
turn critical thinking courses back into the old "Mental Gymnastics 101" courses
which were both ineffective and unpopular. So the issue is whether critical think-
ing courses should teach both formal and informal logic or only informal.
If the goal is to explain as easily as possible to a naive or perhaps skeptical
student those rational standards which allow us to see the difference between
good and bad arguments, the formal approach has much to commend itself. First,
the concepts used by formal logicians to evaluate arguments are clearly defined
and well understood. Such concepts as "validity," "entailment," and "soundness"
can be explained with a great deal of rigor. They are more easily understood than
such notions in informal logic as relevance, sufficiency, and acceptability,2l If
good reasoning is "truth preserving," students see that the most reasonable belief
one can have is one which is supported by reasons or premises that, if true, would
guarantee the truth of the belief, and, just as importantly, there is good inductive
evidence for the premises. If such a necessary relation between the truth of one's
beliefs and the truth of the reasons for the belief is the ideal, then the rationality of
all other beliefs can be evaluated in light of this ideal. Students should, of course,
be told that such certainty is the ideal, and ideals are hard to realize. Nonetheless,
a clear notion of sound arguments as an intellectual goal is important for evaluating
arguments. The more closely arguments resemble sound deductive arguments, the
better.
The process of articulation, the third stage of critical thinking, is also greatly
aided by a fundamental knowledge of formal logic. Use of such formal patterns as
modus tollens and disjunctive syllogism allows our readers to better understand
our position and the reasons for holding it. Using a modus tollens argument pattern
to show the problematic consequences that follow from not accepting a position is
an extremely clear way of arguing a point. For example, if not teaching students
the fundamentals of formal logic and how they apply to all reasoning entails that
students (1) lack a clear standard by which to evaluate arguments, (2) cannot
present their own ideas in a clear forceful fashion, and (3) have trouble organizing
the arguments they encounter, then it follows that we should teach students the
fundamentals of formal logic.
There are also psychological reasons for emphasizing formal logic. Psycho-
logically, the critical evaluation of personal beliefs becomes much easier when
students realize that the evaluation is the evaluation of "an argument," rather than
their beliefs qua theirs. Arguments do not have personalities or egos. They have
premises and conclusions, and valid deductive arguments are of such a form that
if one accepts the premises one must accept the conclusion. Strong inductive
arguments are such that if the premises were true, it is likely that the conclusion is
also true. Such an ideal of critical thought is both depersonalized and de-mystified.
The critical evaluation of a belief, at least for the most part, becomes a formal
 Why Formal Logic is Essentialfor Critical Thinking 85

process, and the beliefs students and others hold become subject to criticism by
virtue ofthe impersonal rules governing the evaluative process. Critical evaluation
is moved beyond the realm of personal feelings or popularity polls. Students un-
derstand and, even more importantly, appreciate the rigor and force of a valid
logical argument. And, as I have argued elsewhere, with such rigor comes respect
for the discipline. 22 Students come to understand clearly what it means, as Socra-
tes said at the end of the Meno, "to tie their beliefs down with reasons." They
know, as perhaps they have never known before, the force of the statement, "x
logically entails y," regardless of their intuitions or feelings or how many of their
friends believe it.
In addition to these arguments, there are additional pedagogical concerns which
those who still prefer the alternative of only an informal approach must answer.
Assuming that we agree that it is important to understand the statement that "Some
claim does or does not entail some other claim," we should ask: Can students
understand the nature and necessity of entailment without first having a clear
notion of validity? And, can they understand validity without a clear notion of
logical form? And, can they understand logical form without some knowledge of
how to symbolize arguments so that the formal relation between premises and
conclusions is made readily apparent? I believe not-at least not without a lot of
unnecessary effort. An adequate explanation of logical form requires the notion
that arguments in natural language can (at least ideally) be paraphrased and then
reduced to symbolic form, displaying their logical structure. It would follow, then,
that if understanding the nature of logical entailment is essential for providing a
standard for evaluating arguments, then the fundamentals of formal logic are es-
sential for such a task. To ignore such material in any course which proposes to
teach critical thinking and teach only informal approaches is not sound pedagogy.
Another pedagogical reason for teaching students the fundamentals of formal
logic is that, as I have found, informal fallacies-the heart of many critical think-
ing texts-are more easily understood once students understand formal logic.
They see that most informal fallacies are fallacies because the conclusion is not
entailed or supported by the premises, no matter how convincing the argument
may sound. This is especially true of tu quoque fallacies, which, I suppose be-
cause hypocrisy is a moral vice, students have trouble understanding. But once
they are familiar with the canons of formal reasoning, they easily see that the fact
that persons engage in the very acts they criticize has nothing to do with whether
their criticisms are reasonable or not.
Such conclusions concerning pedagogy are not simply based on a conceptual
analysis of the goals ofteaching critical thinking. They have also been born out in
the teaching of myoid "Mental Gymnastics 101" logic courses. Whenever infor-
mal fallacies were covered before formal logic, students would suggest on their
course evaluations that the material would be more understandable ifit were "taught
backwards." That is to say, it is easier to understand informal fallacies once one
 86 Donald Hatcher

understands formal logic and the requirements for validity. If most courses in
critical thinking continue to emphasize informal logic and fallacies, it would seem
that these could be taught more easily if the fundamentals of formal logic were
covered first.
Some may object and say that validity is the least important question when
evaluating arguments. The more important question in most disputes is whether
the premises given in support of the belief are acceptable or not. Such observa-
tions are indeed accurate. Nonetheless, the process of evaluating the truth of premises
can also be enhanced by the study of formal logic. For example, one strategy is to
ask students to tum the premise in question into a conclusion, and then ask, "What
sorts of premises are needed in order to support such a conclusion?" For example,
if an argument by Rush Limbaugh against voting for Clinton included the premise
that "Clinton is a socialist," and students wanted to assess the claim, he or she
might construct a modus tollens argument that defined a socialist and then see if
Clinton had those properties. For example: (I) Ifsomeone is a socialist, then he or
she believes in state ownership of the means of production and relative equaliza-
tion of income. (2) Clinton, as far as we know, does not endorse either of these
beliefs. Hence, (3) Clinton is not a socialist. Obviously, understanding the power
of such valid argument patterns makes the process of constructing arguments and
evaluating premises much easier.

4. Conclusion
So, there seem to be some strong arguments for teaching (even emphasizing) the
fundamentals formal logic in critical thinking courses, and it is unwise to leave it
out or to criticize it, as some have done. While knowledge of formal logic is not
sufficient to make people good critical thinkers, to ignore it limits the appreciation
students have for the rigor which is at least possible in human thought and de-
prives them of a valuable tool for constructing and evaluating arguments.

Notes

I For earlier treatments of some of these issues see my article, "A Critique of Critical Thinking,"
Teaching Thinking and Problem Solving, Volume 7, Issue 10, December 1985. An earlier
version of this paper was given at the 16th International Conference on Critical Thinking and
Educational Reform, July 29, 1996 at Sonoma State University.
2 Another problem that threatens the credibility ofthe critical thinking movement is the paucity

of research being done to evaluate (and hopefully validate) the claims about the effects instruc-
tion in critiCal thinking has on students. Like it or not, in educational circles ofthe 90s, legitimacy
requires assessment. Another trend that is problematic is a tendency for some critical thinkers
to endorse relativism in one form or another. (See, for example, Robert Sutton's "The Right
Method?," Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, 11 (February, 1993), 12-14.) It
seems obvious that one cannot apply critical standards to issues across the disciplines without
 Why Formal Logic is Essential for Critical Thinking 87

endorsing a set of standards of rationality that will apply across the disciplines.
J I am grateful to my friend, Professor Don Marquis, at the University of Kansas for this example.
4 According to Ralph H. Johnson and 1. Anthony Blair, paraphrasing Perelman and Olbrechts-

Tyteca's The New Rhetoric, "One should look to see whether argumentation conforms to certain
basic rules of procedure rather than to the model of geometric demonstrations, .. the component
functions in argumentation are more plentiful and varied than merely the advancing of premises
for conclusions ... " in "The Recent Development of Informal Logic," in The Rise of Informal
Logic (Newport News: Vale Press, 1996), pp. 6-7.
5 Richard Paul, "Background Logic, Critical Thinking, and Irrational Language Games," Informal

Logic, Vol. VII, #1, Winter 1985, p. 17. Reprinted in Paul's Critical Thinking: What Every
Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World, ed., AJ.A Binker (Rohnert Park, CA:
Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, 1990), pp. 68-86.
6 Foran example of such rules to lead a critical discussion, see Chapter Two ofL Anne Spencer's

and my Reasoning and Writing: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (Lanham, MA.: Rowman
and Littlefield, 1993), pp. 19-21. Edward Damer's text, Attacking Faulty Reasoning, 3rd edition
(Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995), also contains what he calls "A Code of Conduct
for Effective Rational Discussion," pp.I72-l86). We both got the idea from Frans H. van
Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst in their article "Rules for Argumentation in Dialogues,: Argu-
mentation 2 (4), November 1988, pp. 499-510.
What Spencer and I tried to do in Reasoning and Writing was show that apparently
informal rules for accepting and rejecting a position imply the basic concepts in formal logic. For
example, a principle needed for successful critical discussion is for discussants to have some
agreed upon way to reject a position as unreasonable: A Rejection Principle. Such a principle
could be explicated in terms of reductio ad absurdum strategies; Le., the position entails a
contradiction or something agreed to be false; showing the argument's invalidity, Le., that the
premises, even iftrue, do not entail the conclusion; or that premises of the argument are highly
questionable, given the available evidence.
7 Kerry Walters, "Critical Thinking in Liberal Education: A Case for Overkill?," Liberal Educa-

tion, Fall 1986, pp. 233-244. These same themes run through Walter's introduction to his Re-
Thinking Reason: New Perspectives in Critical Thinking (New York: SUNY Press, 1994), pp. 1-
22. He calls the introduction "beyond logicism." For my critique of Walters's position see "Is
Critical Thinking Guilty of Unwarranted Reductionism?," Journal of Thought. Vol. 24, Spr-Sum
89, pp. 94-111.
g In fact, while he does not emphasize trying to put arguments in standard deductive form, this is

the sort of exercise Edward Damer emphasizes in his critical thinking text, Attacking Faulty
Reasoning. "One will seldom encounter an argument in so clear a form, but any argument can be
reconstructed ... by the orderly separation of the premises from the conclusion." (p. 6) I assume
that if we can locate the premises and conclusion, we can supply any missing premises and put
the argument into standard form.
9 Art Skidmore, a former teacher of mine at the University of Kansas, once went so far as to write

a logic text that covered first-order predicate calculus without using symbols. Everything was
"spelled out."
10Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, 7th edition (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995).

llRobert Ennis's often cited definition of critical thinking is "reasonable reflective thinking about
what to believe and do." This was first formulated nearly thirty-five years ago in his paper "A
Concept of Critical Thinking," Harvard Educational Review, 32, No. I, 1962, pp. 81-111.
12See my article, "Combining Critical Thinking and Written Composition: The Whole is Greater
than the Sum ofthe Parts," Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, Winter, 1995, Vol.
15, #2, pp. 20-36. While the expressed purpose of this six-year study was to see how Baker
students would do if they took our two-semester course that integrated critical thinking and
88 Donald Hatcher

written composition compared to students who took traditional one-semester courses in logic or
critical thinking and composition, one of the surprising results was that the one-semester sec-
tions of logic and critical thinking actually did worse on the post-test of the Ennis-Weir Critical
Thinking Essay Exam than on the pre-test. The following chart summarizes the results.

Comparison of Ennis-weir Pre- and Post-Test Scores

for Baker University Freshmen from Fall 1990 to Spring 1996

Baker Pre Post

Freshmen E-W E-W Dire S.D.ISig.
90/91 (n=169) 6.3 12.4 6.1
91192 (n=119) 9.4 12.2 2.8
92/93 (n= 178) 6.8 12.6 5.8
93/94 (n=178) 8.1 14.1 6.0
94/95 (n=164) 7.5 13.0 5.5
95/96 (n= 169) 6.9 12.9 6.0
Means (n=977) 7.5 12.8 5.3 5.53/.000

Comparison Groups:
Standard Logic 11.2 9.5 -1.7
(F94 n=44)
Standard
Critical Thinking 12.1 13.7 +1.6
(S92 n=23)
Means (n=67) 11.7 11.6 -0.10

Baker Freshmen
to Senior Comparison: Fr. Sr. Dirr.
Spring 1995 (n= 119) 9.4 14.6 5.2
Spring 1996 (n=88) 7.1 14.1 7.0
Means (n=207) 8.2 14.3 6.1

What can we make of these figures? For the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test,
Baker freshmen who completed the critical thinking/composition sequence had an average in-
crease of 5.2 points. The possible range of test scores is from -9 to +29, although very few
students score over 20. The ANOVA analysis of variance yields a standard deviation of5.53, a
statistical significance of .000, and an F value of77.6 for Baker students. Intergrader reliability,
always a concern for the Ennis-Weir exam, has ranged from .85 to over .90 over the six years. In
all cases, the post-test was given as part of students' final exams. The Ennis-Weir scores of the
comparison groups who took traditional one-semester logic or critical thinking courses de-
creased an average of.1 0 points. One comparison group at the large state school was comprised
to two sections of a standard elective logic course using popular textbooks. Because the course
was an elective, the students scored well on the pre-test (12.6 average), while scores declined on
the post-test (11.5 average). The critical thinking course was taught at a large community college
and used a standard critical thinking text, with no attempt to integrate critical thinking with
composition skills. Their gain of 1.6 points was modest, but well below the average gain of +5.2
for Baker students.
 Why Formal Logic is Essentialfor Critical Thinking 89

I3See note 12.

14Ralph Johnson, co-author of Logical Self-Defense (McGraw-Hill), points out the importance of
teachers having a clear notion of critical thinking. Without a clear notion of what critical thinking
is, how will one test to see if students have become better critical thinkers?
13Harvey Siegel, Educating Reason: Rationality, Critical Thinking and Education (New York:
Routledge, 1988), p. 22. See all of Chapter Three for Siegel's account of critical thinking.
161 am indebted to Connie Missimer for pointing out the importance of evaluating alternative
theories or arguments for people who wish to be honest critical thinkers. See her text, Good
Arguments: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986),
Chapter Three. One cannot, as J.S. Mill pointed out in Chapter Two of On Liberty, claim to be
a critical thinker without being aware of the arguments on the other side of one's favorite
position.
l7This three-step process is discussed fully in Anne Spencer's and my text, Reasoning and
Writing: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1993.)
lSI am assuming here a sort of Clifford ian ethics of belief where belief should be proportional to
the evidence and arguments, not to psychological appeal or emotional need.
9
1 Johnson's remarks were from a presentation to new faculty at Baker University who were
interested in teaching critical thinking May 26, 1996. They are echoed is his paper "The New
Logic Course: The State ofthe Art of Non-Formal Methods of Argument Analysis," The Rise
ofInformal Logic, p.56.
2°Let's assume here that an epistemological relativist is not teaching the course and pushing
culturally-based standards, which tum out not to be standards at all.
21For examples ofinformallogic's treatment of such concepts for argument evaluation, see Ralph
H. Johnson and J. Anthony Blair's Logical Self-Defense, U.S. edition (New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1994), pp. 54-55 and Edward Damer'sAttacking Faulty Reasoning, 3rd edition, pp. 12-16.
22"The Failure of the Humanities in a Technological World," Liberal Education, Fall 1985.

Donald Hatcher, Director, Center for Critical Thinking, Baker University

Baldwin City, Kansas 66006 U.S.A.