Traditional Logic (Memoria Press)

Traditional Logic is a two-book formal logic course by Martin Cothran, published by Memoria Press. The publisher describes Book I as an in-depth study of the classical syllogism, designed for use as young as 7th grade, and Book II as a continuation of Book I for advanced formal logic.

Last updated: 2026-10-08 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical formal logic; the publisher calls Book I a systematic course in formal logic, not a sampling of logic topics
Worldview	Christian. Memoria Press describes its philosophy as classical Christian education, and the Traditional Logic I page says the text presents a basic understanding of the Christian theory of knowledge. The publisher names no denomination on the pages we read. Our directory category, Christian · Ecumenical, is Every Homeschool's classification, not the publisher's term
Grades	Traditional Logic I: Grades 7+; Traditional Logic II: Grades 8+. Memoria Academy lists Book I for grades 7-12 and Book II for grades 8-12
Formats	The Complete Set includes the Student Text, Student Workbook, Teacher Key, Quizzes & Test, and streaming instructional videos; DVDs are an optional add-on. Memoria Academy offers live online classes
Cost tier	Budget in Every Homeschool's tiers: Complete Set $81.23 each or Basic Set $45.14 each (retrieved October 2026)
Parent intensity	3 with the video lessons, 4 without (Every Homeschool rating)
ESA-common	Not stated on the publisher's pages
Accredited	Not stated for the course. Memoria Academy, which offers the live online classes, is accredited by the Classical Latin School Association
Established	The publisher's pages do not state a first-publication year for Traditional Logic. The current Book I Student Text is the Third Edition (copyright 2017) and the Book II text is the Second Edition (copyright 2017).
Website	memoriapress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	In our assessment, a systematic formal logic course: Book I covers simple apprehension, judgment, and the rules for categorical syllogisms, and Book II covers figures, moods, enthymemes, hypothetical and complex syllogisms, and the oblique syllogism
Ease of teaching	4	The publisher says Book I is designed specifically for the teacher with no logic background; the Complete Set includes video lessons by the author, a Teacher Key, and quizzes and a test
Content quality	5	In our assessment, short chapters (the publisher says about five pages of text each) followed by daily exercises; Book II adds writing assignments and case studies of famous arguments
Flexibility	3	Book II is described as a continuation of Book I, and Memoria Academy lists Book I or equivalent as the prerequisite for its Book II class
Value for money	4	Each Complete Set is $81.23 (retrieved October 2026)
Worldview scope	4	In our assessment, the logical rules are the same for any student, while the publisher states the text also presents the Christian theory of knowledge and recommends two Peter Kreeft titles as additional resources
Visual/design	3	Our rating reflects the publisher's sample chapters, which are text-focused
Support resources	4	Quizzes and a test, a Teacher Key, streaming videos, lesson plans sold separately, and live online classes

Who the publisher is

Memoria Press describes itself as a family-run publishing company that produces classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. Its About page says it has developed a K-12 classical curriculum at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky, where its programs are written and field-tested. The About page also describes Memoria Academy as an extension of Memoria Press and Highlands Latin School that has offered instruction in Latin, logic, classical studies, literature, history, and mathematics since 2006 for grades 3-12, and the Academy's accreditation page says it is accredited by the Classical Latin School Association.

The Traditional Logic pages list Martin Cothran as author. The publisher's staff page lists him as Editor of The Classical Teacher, Memoria College Provost, and Author. His author note in a May 2026 article on the publisher's site says he is the author of several books, including Memoria Press's Traditional Logic, Material Logic, and Classical Rhetoric programs, and a former Latin, Logic, and Rhetoric instructor at Highlands Latin School. The publisher's Classical Rhetoric page says Traditional Logic Books I and II were developed at Mars Hill, a cottage school for homeschoolers in Lexington, Kentucky.

For audience, the Traditional Logic I page calls the course a logic course for all ages but designed for use as young as 7th grade and says it is for high school students, mature 7th and 8th graders, and adults. On faith, Memoria Press describes its educational philosophy as classical Christian education, and its FAQ says faith references are explicit in some materials and implicit in others. The Book II page says the book includes examples of arguments from the Bible and from authors such as Lewis Carroll, Isaac Watts, St. Augustine, and Tertullian, and case studies that include C. S. Lewis's disjunctive syllogism, David Hume's dilemma on the problem of evil, and St. Thomas Aquinas's cosmological argument.

The core pedagogy

The Book I page describes the course as an in-depth study of the syllogism taught in the traditional three-part method. It presents the four kinds of logical statements, the four ways propositions can be opposed, the three ways they can be equivalent, and the seven rules for the validity of syllogisms, and it says each chapter explains concepts in about five pages of text. The sample table of contents the publisher links on the Student Text page groups the book under Simple Apprehension (Chapters 1-3), Judgment (Chapters 4-9, including the four statements of logic, contradictory and contrary statements, subcontraries and subalterns, distribution of terms, and obversion, conversion, and contraposition), and Deductive Inference (Chapter 10 on deductive inference, Chapters 11-13 on the terminological, quantitative, and qualitative rules for categorical syllogisms), followed by a review chapter. The Student Text page lists a note to the teacher, an introduction, 13 chapters, a review chapter, a glossary, and a list of important people, in 99 pages.

The Book II page says the course covers the four figures of the traditional syllogism, the three forms of rhetorical arguments (called enthymemes), the three kinds of hypothetical syllogisms, the four kinds of complex syllogisms, and relational arguments, and that every chapter includes enough exercises for the student to master the material. The sample table of contents for the Second Edition text lists 14 chapters, from Figure in Syllogisms (Chapter 1) and Mood in Syllogisms (Chapter 2) through Enthymemes (Chapter 6), the three hypothetical syllogisms (Chapters 7-9), polysyllogisms and sorites, the epicheirema, and the dilemma (Chapters 10-13), to The Oblique Syllogism (Chapter 14).

Signature mechanics: (1) A full course in formal logic, as the publisher describes Book I, taught in three parts (simple apprehension, judgment, and deductive inference, per the sample table of contents). (2) Short explanations followed by daily exercises: the Book I page says brief explanations of each lesson are followed by well-structured daily exercises, and the Student Workbook is a separate book. (3) Video lessons by the author: the page says Mr. Cothran covers every important aspect of the book in the streaming videos, which are a lifetime streaming membership. (4) A two-book sequence, with Book II described as using the same format as Book I.

A day in the life

The publisher does not publish a daily schedule for the home course on the pages Every Homeschool read, so this section sticks to what the publisher describes. For the home course, the Complete Set includes the Student Text, a Student Workbook that provides daily exercises, a Teacher Key for the workbook and the quizzes and test, and streaming video lessons. The publisher's track list for the Traditional Logic I videos shows tracks of roughly 21 to 55 minutes, with the first track (Chapter 1 and the introduction) at about 1 hour 11 minutes, and its list for the Traditional Logic II videos shows tracks from about 8 to about 29 minutes. The same page links digital and physical lesson plans for Traditional Logic I and II.

For the live online classes, Memoria Academy says Traditional Logic I asks students to devote 25-30 minutes a day, with the grade based on participation, weekly quizzes, and a final exam, and that the class is worth half a high school credit. Its Traditional Logic II page says students should devote 45 minutes a day, lists the course as half a high school credit, and shows Spring 2027 sections that meet once a week for 90 minutes. Students need a USB headset or a built-in microphone, and the Academy's course formats page says regular online courses are live every week.

What they do exceptionally well

A systematic formal logic course. The publisher describes Book I as a systematic course in formal logic rather than a sampling of topics. In our assessment, the three-part structure in the sample table of contents (terms, propositions, syllogisms) gives a student a clear order to follow, and Book II continues it with figures and moods, enthymemes, hypothetical and complex syllogisms, and relations.

Video lessons and a Teacher Key in the set. The Complete Set includes streaming videos by the author and a Teacher Key for the workbook, quizzes, and test, and the publisher says Book I is designed for a teacher with no logic background. In our assessment, that makes the course workable for a parent who has not studied logic.

One publisher's logic titles. Memoria Press also sells Material Logic (Grades 9+, usable as a one-semester or one-year course) and Classical Rhetoric (Grades 9+), whose workbook includes review questions from Traditional Logic, and Memoria Academy teaches both Traditional Logic books as live classes. In our assessment, families that stay with the publisher have further logic and rhetoric titles to continue with.

What they do poorly

Formal logic only. The publisher describes Traditional Logic as formal logic, an in-depth study of the classical syllogism. Families who want informal logic, fallacy identification, or modern symbolic logic will need another resource (see the alternatives below), and the publisher's Material Logic and Classical Rhetoric are separate purchases.

The grade information varies on the publisher's pages. The Book I page heading says Grades 7+ and the text says the course is for high school students, mature 7th and 8th graders, and adults, while the page's Additional Information box lists grades 9 through 12, and Memoria Academy lists grades 7-12. In our assessment, the publisher's own wording (mature 7th and 8th graders) suggests that a student at the younger end of the range should be ready for abstract reasoning.

Christian content is part of the text. The publisher says Book I presents a basic understanding of the Christian theory of knowledge, and the Book II page lists examples of arguments from the Bible and case studies that include C. S. Lewis's disjunctive syllogism on the deity of Christ and Aquinas's cosmological argument for the existence of God. Families who want a logic course with no Christian content would be adapting the course.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Traditional Logic if: you want a systematic formal logic course as part of a classical sequence; your student is in the publisher's grade range (7+ for Book I, 8+ for Book II) and ready for abstract reasoning; you want video lessons and a Teacher Key so that a parent without a logic background can teach it; you are already using Memoria Press materials and want continuity, or you want a live online class through Memoria Academy.

• Skip Traditional Logic if: you want informal logic, fallacy identification, or modern symbolic logic, since the publisher describes this course as formal logic; your student is younger than seventh grade or struggles with abstraction; you want a logic course without Christian content; you do not need a formal logic sequence and would prefer to integrate critical thinking into history and literature.

Cost honest assessment

Current prices on the publisher's pages (retrieved October 2026): the Traditional Logic I Complete Set is $81.23, and the Traditional Logic II Complete Set is also $81.23, so the two sets together are $162.46. On the Traditional Logic I Complete Set page, the Student Text is $12.19, the Student Workbook $14.25, the Teacher Key $8.89, the Quizzes & Test $4.65, and the streaming videos $41.25. Each page says the set includes physical books and streaming videos, with DVDs available as an add-on at $10.00. The publisher also sells Basic Sets for each book, the Traditional Logic I Basic Set and the Traditional Logic II Basic Set, at $45.14 each. The Traditional Logic I Basic Set page lists the Student Text, the Student Workbook, the Teacher Key, and the Quizzes & Tests.

Memoria Academy offers Traditional Logic I and Traditional Logic II as live online semester courses, each worth half a high school credit. As of October 2026 its page lists Traditional Logic II sections for Spring 2027 at $340.00 each, which adds an instructor and a weekly live class to the textbook-and-workbook investment. The publisher's other logic and rhetoric sets include the Material Logic Complete Set ($97.48) and the Classical Rhetoric Complete Set, Full-Year ($167.60). Sale prices change, so check the current price before ordering.

ESA eligibility notes

The Traditional Logic pages that Every Homeschool read in October 2026, on both memoriapress.com and memoriaacademy.com, do not mention state education savings account programs or marketplaces, and the publisher's support page does not list them either. Families using state education funds should check their program's approved-vendor list and its rules on religious materials, and confirm with Memoria Press customer service before ordering.

Alternatives

• The Art of Argument (Classical Academic Press): the publisher describes it as an informal logic text that covers 28 fallacies. In our assessment, a family would compare it with Traditional Logic when it wants fallacy detection more than formal syllogistic logic.
• The Fallacy Detective (Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn): the publisher lists 38 lessons on recognizing bad reasoning, for ages twelve through adult, with cartoon illustrations. In our assessment, a family would compare it with Traditional Logic when it wants fallacy recognition rather than formal categorical logic.
• Introductory Logic (Canon Press): the publisher lists it for Grade 7+, with 40 lessons covering formal and informal logic and a separate video course. In our assessment, a family would compare it with Traditional Logic when it wants one text that covers both formal and informal logic.