Material Logic (Memoria Press)

Material Logic is the advanced half of Memoria Press's logic sequence, and it is the closest thing the American homeschool market has to a Thomistic and Aristotelian logic course built specifically for high-schoolers and their parents.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical (Thomistic logic; post-Traditional Logic sequel)
Worldview	Christian-ecumenical (classical Christian; draws on scholastic tradition)
Grades	9-12 (typically 10th or 11th grade)
Formats	Print text, workbook, tests, teacher DVDs
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	3
ESA-common	Yes (on Christian-permitting marketplaces)
Accredited	No
Established	2007, per Memoria Press
Website	memoriapress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	Genuine scholastic logic at a high-school register; rare in American homeschool
Ease of teaching	3	Teacher DVDs with Martin Cothran carry much of the teaching load
Content quality	5	Carefully written; Cothran is among the best teacher-authors in classical Christian publishing
Flexibility	3	Assumes prior completion of Traditional Logic I and II
Value for money	4	Priced reasonably for the depth of content
Worldview scope	4	Thomistic-Aristotelian framing; content itself is philosophically broad
Visual/design	3	Restrained, serious, text-driven layout
Support resources	4	Teacher DVDs, answer keys, Memoria Online Academy option

Who the publisher is

Memoria Press is a classical Christian publisher based in Louisville, Kentucky, founded by Cheryl Lowe in 1994. The company began as a small operation producing materials for Highlands Latin School, the classical Christian school Lowe co-founded, and grew into one of the largest classical Christian homeschool publishers in the United States. Memoria publishes across Latin, logic, composition, literature, and history, and maintains the Memoria Press Online Academy for families wanting live-taught versions of the curriculum.

Memoria's logic sequence is the work of Martin Cothran, a longtime Memoria Press author and teacher whose books include Traditional Logic I (2000), Traditional Logic II (2002), Material Logic (2007), and Classical Rhetoric. The three logic titles form a progression: Traditional Logic I introduces the syllogism and formal logic at an introductory high-school level; Traditional Logic II extends into hypothetical and disjunctive syllogisms and refutations; Material Logic is the capstone, treating the content side of logic, the categories, definition, division, and demonstration, following the Thomistic tradition.

Material Logic's market position is distinctive. Formal logic at the syllogism level appears in a handful of homeschool programs; material logic in the scholastic sense appears in exactly one commonly available homeschool curriculum, and this is it. Families who want their high-schooler to work through what medieval scholastics called the organon, the tools of thought, do not have another comparable mass-market option. Cathy Duffy's review treats the course as advanced and specifically recommends it for students who have completed Traditional Logic.

The core pedagogy

Material Logic teaches the content side of logic following the Aristotelian and Thomistic tradition. Where formal logic (the subject of Traditional Logic I and II) concerns the structure of arguments, whether conclusions follow from premises, material logic concerns the terms used in those arguments: what categories of being things belong to, what a definition is and how to construct one, what division is, and what scientific demonstration looks like in the classical sense. The course is structured as a guided walk through four major topics: the Ten Categories (substance, quantity, quality, relation, and six others following Aristotle), the Five Predicables (genus, species, difference, property, and accident), the rules of definition and division, and the method of scientific demonstration.

Scope and sequence moves in the order of scholastic pedagogy: categories first, then predicables, then definition and division as operations the categories and predicables make possible, then demonstration as the highest operation of the logical arts. Each chapter presents the concept with explanation and worked examples, followed by workbook exercises that move from simple identification to applied analysis. The course assumes students have internalized the syllogism from Traditional Logic and can handle sustained abstract reasoning. A typical student spends twenty-eight to thirty-two weeks on the course at three sessions a week; it can be compressed into a single semester by a highly motivated student but is more commonly a full-year course.

Signature mechanics: (1) Thomistic framing, the course draws explicitly on Aquinas and the scholastic tradition, presenting Aristotelian logic as Aquinas synthesized and taught it. This is the curriculum's distinguishing commitment. (2) Cothran's video instruction, the teacher DVDs feature Cothran lecturing on the material, which is valuable because few parents have studied scholastic logic themselves. (3) Workbook-plus-tests structure, each chapter closes with exercises and a test, matching Memoria's standard pedagogical format across its catalog. (4) Capstone positioning, the curriculum is explicitly designed as the finishing move before rhetoric; students who complete Material Logic typically move into Cothran's Classical Rhetoric or CiRCE's Lost Tools of Writing the following year.

A day in the life

An eleventh-grader working through Material Logic typically has logic scheduled three days a week, forty-five to sixty minutes per session. A Monday session opens with the student watching the current chapter's DVD lecture. Cothran on, say, the distinction between essential and accidental predicables, for roughly twenty-five minutes, taking notes as he works through the examples on screen. The student then turns to the textbook and reads the corresponding chapter section, which restates the lecture's content in more durable prose. Wednesday's session: the student works the chapter's exercises in the workbook, identifying the Ten Categories in a set of propositions and practicing division of a concept. Friday's session: the student reviews, prepares for the chapter test the following week, and discusses any sticky points with the parent.

The parent's role varies. Parents who themselves have studied philosophy can teach alongside Cothran, adding discussion and historical context. Parents who have not can rely on Cothran's DVD instruction and the workbook answer keys, stepping in primarily to pace the student and grade tests. Families who want live instruction can enroll the student in Memoria Press Online Academy's Material Logic course, where a live instructor teaches the material weekly at an additional cost.

What they do exceptionally well

Bringing scholastic logic to a homeschool audience. This content does not otherwise exist in mass-market homeschool curriculum. Students who complete Material Logic have genuinely worked through the Ten Categories, the Five Predicables, and the method of scientific demonstration, content that used to be standard in classical Christian education and has nearly vanished elsewhere. The course fills a real gap.

Cothran's pedagogy. Martin Cothran writes with unusual clarity about difficult material. His DVD instruction is measured, his examples are well-chosen, and his prose avoids the twin failure modes of scholastic writing (opaque technicality and patronizing simplification). Students and parents consistently rate the Cothran videos as the strongest teaching in the Memoria catalog.

Sequencing. Material Logic arrives at the right moment in Memoria's logic sequence. A student who has worked through Traditional Logic I and II is prepared for Material Logic; a student who has not will struggle. The prerequisite structure is clear, and the capstone positioning sets up rhetoric naturally. This kind of vertical integration is common in classical publishers and uncommon elsewhere.

What they do poorly

Prerequisites required. Material Logic is not a standalone introduction to logic. Students who have not completed Traditional Logic I and II (or comparable formal logic coursework) will find Material Logic unmoored. The course assumes syllogistic fluency, and Cothran does not re-teach it.

Abstract demand. Material logic is abstract by nature. Students who have struggled with algebraic abstraction will likely struggle with scholastic logic, and no amount of clear presentation can fully compensate. Parents should calibrate expectations to the student's aptitude for sustained abstract work.

Limited supporting community. Relative to Memoria's Latin sequence (which is widely used in classical co-ops and Memoria Press Online Academy) or to CiRCE's Lost Tools ecosystem (which has conferences and teacher training), Material Logic is a somewhat lonely course. Fewer co-ops teach it; fewer families have peers working on the same content. Students who thrive on community study may want to enroll in the Memoria Press Online Academy class rather than self-study the course.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Material Logic if: your high-schooler has completed Traditional Logic I and II and is ready for the scholastic capstone; you want genuine philosophical content rather than a critical-thinking-lite course; you are part of the classical Christian tradition and want Thomistic framing; you have access to Cothran's DVDs or the Online Academy class; your student enjoys abstract work.

• Skip Material Logic if: your student has not done prior formal logic; you want a broadly applicable critical-thinking course rather than scholastic logic; your student has struggled with abstraction in math or grammar; you want a secular logic course; you want a video teacher who is not Cothran (the program is Cothran-centric by design).

Cost honest assessment

As of April 2026, the Material Logic complete set, textbook, workbook, tests and quizzes, answer key, runs approximately $75-$95 from the Memoria Press store. The teacher DVD set adds approximately $70-$100. A Memoria Press Online Academy Material Logic class runs approximately $495-$695 per academic year depending on enrollment period and tier.

Compared to Traditional Logic I complete set (roughly $50-$70, the prerequisite), Classical Academic Press's The Discovery of Deduction (roughly $50-$80, a parallel formal-logic program), and James Nance's Introductory and Intermediate Logic (roughly $30-$50 per level for an alternative classical formal logic sequence), Material Logic is priced in the standard range for its depth. It is more expensive than introductory formal logic programs because it is a longer, more advanced course.

An all-in annual budget for a high-schooler self-studying Material Logic with the DVD set: $150-$195. For a student enrolled in the Memoria Online Academy class: $495-$695 plus the text. For families already using Memoria Press across multiple subjects, the ecosystem discount (sometimes available on full-year packages) can reduce the per-course price.

ESA eligibility notes

Memoria Press is approved on most state ESA marketplaces that permit Christian curricula, including Arizona's ClassWallet, Florida's MyScholarShop and Step Up For Students, Utah Fits All, and Arkansas's LEARNS Act marketplace. Material Logic, as a Memoria Press title, is typically reimbursable where Memoria Press generally is approved. Because the course draws on classical Christian philosophical tradition rather than devotional or biblical content, it is often classified as academic coursework rather than religious, which can smooth approval in states that distinguish between the two. Memoria Press Online Academy tuition is sometimes reimbursable as tutoring or online course fees; rules vary.

Alternatives

• Classical Academic Press's The Argument Builder and The Discovery of Deduction, a family would pick CAP because its logic sequence is more visually designed, more accessible for students without prior logic study, and does not assume completion of a formal-logic prerequisite.
• Canon Press Introductory and Intermediate Logic (James Nance), a family would pick Canon Press because Nance's programs are the other widely used classical Christian formal-logic sequence, with video instruction and a Reformed Protestant framing.
• Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft, a family would pick Kreeft's Socratic Logic for a more philosophically ambitious single-volume course covering both material and formal logic, suitable for advanced high-schoolers or first-year college students.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Material Logic product pages, sample chapters, and the Memoria Press Online Academy course description on memoriapress.com and memoriapressonline.com in April 2026, cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy Reviews and Memoria Press's own published scope and sequence for its logic line. Pricing was pulled from the live Memoria Press store in April 2026. Martin Cothran's authorship and publication dates were confirmed against Memoria Press's author page and catalog history.