Objective 8-1
Understand what categorical logic is.

• Recognize what makes it specifically categorical logic, what "categories" have to do with it.

Objective 8-2
Know and use categorical claims with familiarity and comfort.

• Recognize that the standard-form categorical claim breaks down along precise lines into subject and predicate terms.
• Understand and identify the four standard forms A, E, I, and O.
• Use Venn diagrams to represent categorical claims.
• Differentiate affirmative from negative standard form categorical claims and understand how to indicate the differences on a Venn diagram.
• Learn the techniques for translating normal English claims into their standard form categorical equivalents.
• Be prepared and able to rephrase English sentences in order to make them fit within the structure of standard form categorical claims.
• Translate claims that appear in the past tense, or that use the words "only" and "the only," or that make claims about specific times and places.
• Be able to translate claims about single individuals and claims that use mass nouns so that those claims can take standard form.

Objective 8-3
Grasp the organizational justification behind the square of opposition and see how the square illustrates logical relationships among categorical claims.

• Understand the definition of corresponding categorical claims.
• Know that A-claims and E-claims are contrary claims, and understand what that means.
• Know that I-claims and O-claims are subcontrary claims, and understand what that means.
• Know that A-claims and O-claims are contradictory to one another, as E-claims and I-claims are to one another too; and understand what contradictory claims are.

Objective 8-4
Understand the three operations you can perform on a standard form categorical claim.

• Know how to find the converse of a categorical claim and how to determine its truth-value, when that is possible.
• Know how to find the obverse of a categorical claim and how to determine its truth-value, when that is possible.
• Be able to determine the complementary term for any term and know how to use it when producing an obverse or a contrapositive.
• Know how to find the contrapositive of a categorical claim and how to determine its truth-value, when that is possible.

Objective 8-5
Know what a categorical syllogism is and how to evaluate its validity or invalidity using Venn diagrams.

• Understand the precise definition of a categorical syllogism.
• Be able to identify the major term, minor term, and middle term in a syllogism.
• Know how to test for the validity of a syllogism with Venn diagrams.
• Remember to diagram the affirmative (A-claim or E-claim) premise of the syllogism before the negative (I-claim or O-claim) premise, when one exists.

Objective 8-6
Be able to test for the validity of a categorical syllogism with the rules of the syllogism.

• Understand what a distributed term is and always be able to identify the distributed term in any given syllogism.
• Learn the three rules of the syllogism and understand how to apply them in every instance.
• Understand the advantages and disadvantages of the two tests for validity.