Week 5 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 5 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 50–64 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (17–23 min total)

• Introduction to Categorical Logic — Philologick
• Boolean Venn Diagrams I — Carneades.org
• Sets and Venn Diagrams — Math is Fun
• Outer space: Venn you can't use Venn — Plus magazine

① Reading all, no, and some

Chapter 5, Section “Read the four forms: all, no, some, and some-not” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Four ways to talk about groups” · Remember: some means at least one, and All S are P never flips into All P are S.

• Categorical Logic — Carneades.org — a ninety-second introduction to the basics of categorical logic, the logic of claims about groups; afterward, say the four forms aloud with a coffee shop's muffins as the subject. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
• Introduction to Categorical Logic — Philologick — a three-minute introduction to the parts of a categorical claim, how the four kinds are classified, and some tips on rewriting everyday sentences; compare its tips with the club, store, and recipe rewrites in the chapter. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

② Building and testing a syllogism

Chapter 5, Section “Test it with circles: the Venn diagram” · Session 2, Segment 4, “Testing with three circles” · Remember: shade the All and No premises first, then place the X, then check whether the conclusion's region is already settled.

• Aristotle: from Nature to Logic – in verse! What is a Syllogism? How was it born? 2 worlds, 1 leap! — PhilosoVerses — a light, rhyming four-minute telling of how Aristotle's sorting of plants and animals may have led him to the syllogism; enjoy it as a story rather than settled history, then go back to the chapter for the test itself. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)
• Venn Diagrams and Testing Validity — Mick Presnell — an eight-minute walk through drawing each of the four forms with two circles, then testing syllogisms with three: draw the universal premise first, place the X, and check whether the conclusion is already shown; compare its steps with the chapter's shade-first, X-second order. (video, 8 min) (captions: automatic)
• Boolean Venn Diagrams I — Carneades.org — a two-minute demonstration of testing a syllogism with shaded regions on the modern reading; ignore its letter-and-figure labels, and pause before each verdict to say which region decides it. Use it while working through the Week-5 module overview. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
• Master Valid vs. Invalid Arguments (Never Get Confused Again) — Let's Get Logical — a five-minute refresher on what valid means and how it differs from true; this builds on Week 3's work with validity, which is exactly what a Venn diagram checks. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
• Sets and Venn Diagrams — Math is Fun — a friendly page on reading the regions of two-circle and three-circle diagrams with a group of friends who play different sports; read it for how each region names one combination of inside and outside, and skip the set symbols. (reading, 8–12 min)

③ What a diagram does not say

Chapter 5, Section “Read only what is drawn: the modern reading” · Session 2, Segment 5, “What the circles don't say” · Remember: shading means empty, an X means at least one, and an All claim by itself never says that anything exists.

• The Existential Fallacy — The Fallacy Files — a short page on arguing from claims that say nothing exists to a conclusion that says something does, with a Venn diagram and a section on how the traditional and modern readings differ; read the example, the exposition, and the history, and skip the letter labels for the four forms. (reading, 8–12 min)
• Outer space: Venn you can't use Venn — Plus magazine — a short magazine column on how a Venn diagram shows possibilities as regions, and on why a diagram drawn carelessly can show a region that matches nothing real. (reading, 4–6 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• The Syllogism (Aristotle: Logic) — Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy — the reference entry's section on the syllogism in Aristotle's logic; read that section only, and skip the rest of the entry for now. (reading, 6–10 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com