The Logos Hub

Logic, Rhetoric, and Applied Intellect

Logic, Rhetoric, and Applied Intellect

Master Curriculum & Roadmap

Overview of Program Phases

PHASE 1: The Internal Engine (Logic, Grammar, & Mental Mechanics)

Goal: Build non-negotiable logical hygiene, structural validity, and cognitive self-awareness before touching complex texts.

Core Modules & Primary Readings:

  1. Formal Deductive Logic & Propositional Calculus
    • Concepts: Truth tables, categorical syllogisms, predicate logic, sound vs. valid arguments.
    • Anchor Text: A Concise Introduction to Logic (Patrick J. Hurley).
  2. Grammar, Syntactic Architecture, & Prose Rhythm
    • Concepts: Sentence mechanics, subordination, coordination, clarity under complexity.
    • Anchor Text: Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Joseph M. Williams).
  3. Informal Logic & Fallacy Detection
    • Concepts: The 20+ major informal fallacies, structural leaps, ambiguity, begging the question.
    • Anchor Text: Attacking Faulty Reasoning (T. Edward Damer).
  4. Cognitive Psychology & Heuristics
    • Concepts: System 1 vs. System 2 thinking, confirmation bias, cognitive load, framing effects.
    • Anchor Text: Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman).

PHASE 2: Comprehensive Survey & Epistemology

Goal: Construct the master map of human knowledge and trace how rhetorical theory developed over 2,500 years.

Core Modules & Primary Readings:

  1. Epistemology & Theory of Knowledge
    • Concepts: Justified true belief, skepticism, Bayesian updating, perception, and justification.
    • Anchor Text: Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction (Robert Audi).
  2. The Comprehensive Historical Survey of Rhetoric
    • Concepts: The chronological evolution of rhetoric from ancient speech to modern media.
    • Anchor Text: The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present (Patricia Bizzell & Bruce Herzberg) [~1,600 pages].
  3. Narrative History of Rhetoric
    • Concepts: Bridging the historical gaps between the Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern eras.
    • Anchor Text: Rhetoric in the European Tradition (Thomas O. Conley).

PHASE 3: Classical Antiquity to the Renaissance (The Codification of Art)

Goal: Master primary source texts where rhetoric was codified as a formal discipline (techne), political tool, and moral imperative.

Primary Text Reading List:

  1. Plato: Gorgias & Phaedrus (False persuasion vs. philosophical truth).
  2. Aristotle: On Rhetoric (Trans. George A. Kennedy) (The Rhetorical Triangle, Ethos/Pathos/Logos, genres, and enthymemes).
  3. Cicero: De Oratore (The 5 Canons: Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory, Delivery; the ideal orator).
  4. Quintilian: Institutio Oratoria (Books 1 & 10–12) (Moral communication: “The good man speaking well”).
  5. St. Augustine: On Christian Doctrine (Book IV) (Pagan rhetoric adapted for homiletics and biblical interpretation).

PHASE 4: Enlightenment, Hermeneutics, & Philosophy of Language

Goal: Understand how the Scientific Revolution and modern philosophy reshaped human communication, meaning, and interpretation.

Primary Text Reading List & Modules:

  1. Enlightenment Rhetoric: Francis Bacon (Novum Organum selections), George Campbell (Philosophy of Rhetoric), and Hugh Blair.
  2. Philosophy of Language:
    • Concepts: Semantics vs. pragmatics, speech act theory, sense and reference.
    • Anchor Readings: Gottlob Frege, J.L. Austin (How to Do Things With Words), and John Searle.
  3. Hermeneutics & Interpretation Theory:
    • Concepts: Textual interpretation, context, and the “hermeneutic circle.”
    • Anchor Readings: Hans-Georg Gadamer (Truth and Method selections).

PHASE 5: The 20th Century Revival (The “New Rhetoric”)

Goal: Study how theorists reinvented rhetoric to explain mass propaganda, psychological warfare, and structural power.

Primary Text Reading List:

  1. Kenneth Burke: A Rhetoric of Motives & Language as Symbolic Action (Dramatism, terministic screens, identification).
  2. Chaïm Perelman & Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca: The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation (Moving past formal logic; universal vs. particular audiences).
  3. Stephen Toulmin: The Uses of Argument (The Toulmin Model: Claim, Data, Warrant, Backing, Rebuttal, Qualifier).
  4. I.A. Richards: The Philosophy of Rhetoric (Rhetoric as the study of misunderstanding; semantic triangle).
  5. Lloyd Bitzer: “The Rhetorical Situation” (1968) (Exigence, Audience, Constraints).

PHASE 6: Modern Critical, Visual, & Cognitive Rhetoric

Goal: Examine how contemporary language, technology, media, and metaphors shape human consciousness and social reality.

Primary Text Reading List & Modules:

  1. George Lakoff & Mark Johnson: Metaphors We Live By (Metaphor as the fundamental cognitive structure of thought).
  2. Walter J. Ong: Orality and Literacy (How print culture and literacy restructured human consciousness).
  3. Constitutive Rhetoric & Discourse: James Jasinski (Sourcebook on Rhetoric) and Michel Foucault (The Order of Things / The Archaeology of Knowledge selections).
  4. Visual & Digital Rhetoric:
    • Concepts: Non-verbal argument, document design, visual tropes, media ecology, digital framing.

PHASE 7: Multidisciplinary Applied Systems

Goal: Take your synthesized engine of logic and rhetoric and deploy it across high-stakes, real-world fields.

Core Modules & Applied Fields:

  1. Legal Reasoning & Judicial Rhetoric:
    • Concepts: Case law analysis, statutory interpretation, stare decisis, appellate briefs.
    • Anchor Text: Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges (Antonin Scalia & Bryan A. Garner).
  2. Strategic Reasoning & Game Theory:
    • Concepts: Mathematical and rhetorical modeling of decision-making under conflict and incentives.
    • Anchor Text: Games, Strategies, and Decision Making (Joseph E. Harrington).
  3. Rhetoric of Negotiation & Conflict Resolution:
    • Concepts: Principled negotiation, interest-based bargaining, reframing impasse.
    • Anchor Text: Getting to Yes (Fisher, Ury, & Patton).
  4. Propaganda & Mass Persuasion:
    • Concepts: Manufacturing consent, media framing, institutional rhetoric.
    • Anchor Text: Manufacturing Consent (Chomsky & Herman) / Propaganda (Edward Bernays).

PHASE 8: Doctoral Capstone & Comprehensive Synthesis

Goal: Achieve full mastery by producing original, publication-quality intellectual work.

Capstone Requirements:

  1. The Comprehensive Oral/Written Defense (Self-Exam): Answer 3 broad, high-level prompts integrating the entire reading list (e.g., “Compare Aristotle’s concept of Logos with Toulmin’s Warrant and Perelman’s Universal Audience, evaluating their efficacy in legal argumentation”).
  2. The Master Monograph: Produce a 40–60 page original treatise that takes a complex, multi-variable real-world problem (philosophical, technical, or political) and provides:
    • A formal symbolic logic map verifying thesis validity.
    • A complete classical rhetorical arrangement (Exordium to Peroratio).
    • A rigorous critique of opposing logical fallacies.
    • Application of cognitive, game-theoretic, and audience-specific framing.