Islamic Logic

Syllabus

Module 1: We Need To Use Our Minds to Realize Why Islam is True

The Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) didn’t ask us to accept Islam based on authority. He taught us to use our minds to see for ourselves that God exists and that the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace) is God’s messenger. That means we need logic.

Topics: Inference, knowledge, belief, following an authority (taqlid).

Fallacies: Appeal to Authority

Module 2: If Logic Comes From Aristotle, and Aristotle Taught in a Pagan Temple, Then is Logic Even Permissible?

The founder of formal logic is Aristotle, and he didn’t believe that Islam was true. In fact, he taught in a pagan temple called the Lyceum. Learn what logic is by discovering the flaws in the argument that it’s not permissible to study logic because it was first documented by a non-Muslim. 

Topics: Definition of logic, founder of logic, legal ruling of studying logic

Fallacies: Ad-Hominem Fallacy, Straw-Man Fallacy

Module 3: What is Logic All About? And What Makes it Islamic?

Muslim scholars didn’t just swallow Aristotle wholesale. They critiqued him, merged his work with the Quran and Sunna, and developed a uniquely Islamic logic that is designed to show why Islam is true.

Topics: Conceptual knowledge, propositional knowledge, inferential knowledge, noninferential knowledge, higher context of kalam, created and contingent human knowledge, truth and falsehood, correspondence to extramental reality.

Module 4: What is Language? And How is it Related to Logic?

We can’t do logic without language. That’s why it’s important to clearly understand exactly what language is, how it relates to the unspoken “mental language” in our minds, and how that relates to the world outside of our minds.

Topics: Language as a convention of sounds associated with meanings, spoken language and mental language, language as a vehicle for expressing mental arguments, signification, kinds of signification, word-meaning relationships (synonyms, homonyms), extramental reference

Module 5: What Exactly Do You Mean?

Most of us don’t appreciate that we can’t make an argument unless we define our terms. That’s why most of our disagreements are semantics. Even disagreements over the existence of God!

Topics: Universal and singular concepts, univocity, kinds of universals, kinds of definitions, conceptual knowledge, semantic disagreements

Fallacies: Equivocation, Begging the Question

Module 6: Does it Have to be True that the E = mc^2? Does it Have to be True that God Exists?

Propositions aren’t just true. They are either necessarily true or contingently true. Scientists don’t make this distinction. That’s why it often leads to atheism.

Topics: Modality, necessity, continuity, necessary truths vs. scientific truths, contingency, the four integral parts of a proposition, the modality of scientific propositions

Fallacies: **Assuming Scientific Necessity

Module 7: What Exactly is a Contradiction?

Rational proofs only work if you accept the principle of non-contradiction. That’s why it’s so important to understand exactly what a contradiction is. Even more important for a common kind of argument called a reductio ad absurdum argument, which appears commonly arguments for the truth of Islam.

Topics: Contradiction of quantified and unquantified propositions, obversion, concept-complementarity

Fallacies: False Dilemma 

Module 8: Humans Are Intelligent. But Are Intelligent Beings Human? What About Non-Humans? (Aliens?)

We can manipulate propositions in interesting ways to preserve their truth. But sometimes the manipulations aren’t truth-preserving. It’s important to know the difference. Otherwise we make logical mistakes.

Topics: Conversion, obversion

Module 9: What is an Argument?

Most propositions require arguments to be proven true. (You’ll learn the most important kinds of arguments that can be used to do that.) But it’s really important to know that some propositions don’t need any arguments to be proven true. 

Topics: Noninferentially True Premises, Inference, Probabilistic and Conclusive Inference, Arguments, Structure of Arguments

Fallacies: **Appeal to Skepticism, **Denying Contingent Certainty

Module 10: Deductive Arguments

Deductive arguments lead to certainty. All of the arguments for the truth of Islam are deductive. Analyze the structure of deductive religious arguments.

Topics: Categorical Syllogism, Figures and Modes, Conditional Syllogisms

Fallacies: Affirming the Consequent, Denying the Antecedent

Module 11: Inductive Arguments

Inductive arguments lead to probabilistic knowledge. Most practical everyday arguments are inductive. And most atheist arguments are inductive too.

Topics: Analogical Reasoning, Inductive Generalization, Probability, Statistical Inference

Fallacies: False Analogy, Hasty Generalization, Gambler’s Fallacy

Module 12: Scientific Reasoning

Scientific reasoning hasn’t traditionally been a part of Islamic logic. But now it needs to be. Learn what it is, how it relates to the truth of Islam, and how to fit it into what you’ve learned in this course.

Topics: Scientific Modelling, Inference to the Best Explanation

Cumulative Course Project

Use everything that you have learned in this course to comprehensively anlayze the four key arguments for why Islam is true and to demonstrate the fallacies in ten common atheist objections.

This Course Will Teach You How to Use Islamic Logic to Spot the Following Fallacies:

Affirming the Consequent

Appeal to Authority

**Appeal to Skepticism (to be skeptical of the truth of noninferentially true premises)

**Assuming Scientific Necessity (to assume that scientific inferences are necessarily true)

Begging the Question

Denying the Antecedent

**Denying Contingent Certainty (to assume that it is impossible to attain certainty with contingently true premises)

Equivocation

False Analogy

False Dilemma

Gambler’s Fallacy

Hasty Generalization

Loaded Questions

Strawman

** These are new fallacies that the instructor of this course has spotted in objections against arguments that show why Islam is true. These fallacies can only be appreciated through a study of Why Islam is True and Islamic Logic.

OPTION 1: SINGLE-PAY

OPTION 2: FOUR INSTALLMENTS

PLEASE NOTE THAT BY CHOOSING THIS OPTION YOU ARE ENTERING INTO A BINDING AGREEMENT TO PAY ALL FOUR INSTALLMENTS.