PHIL 230 Introduction to Formal Logic

Syllabus
Spring, 2012

Prerequisites:

Completion of GE Analytical Reading/Expository Writing; either GE Mathematics or MATH 210

Contact information:

Professor Cindy Stern	Email: cindy.stern@csun.edu (818) 677-4853, Sierra Tower 508 Office hours: Tu & Th 7:00 - 7:45 AM and 1:00 - 1:45 PM; also by appointment
Philosophy Department	(818) 677-2757, Sierra Tower 522 and 524

Catalogue description:

Introduction to modern deductive logic; includes propositional logic and theory of quantification.

Instructor's Description (Role in the General Education Program):

This course satisfies the “Critical Thinking” component of the Basic Skill section of the General Education Program, which recognizes critical reasoning as a fundamental competence. Courses in this section of General Education take reasoning itself as their focus. Their goals are to provide students with criteria and methods for distinguishing good reasoning from bad and to help students develop basic reasoning skills that they can apply both within a broad range of academic disciplines and outside the academic environment. Students are expected to acquire skill in recognizing the logical structure of statements and arguments, the ability to distinguish rational from non-rational means of persuasion, skill in applying the principles of sound reasoning in the construction and evaluation of arguments, and an appreciation of the value of critical reasoning skills in the pursuit of knowledge.

Goal:

Students will analyze information and ideas carefully and logically from multiple perspectives and develop reasoned solutions to problems.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Explain and apply the basic concepts essential to critical examination and evaluation of argumentative discourse;
2. Use investigative and analytical thinking skills to examine alternative, explore complex questions and solve challenging problems;
3. Synthesize information in order to arrive at reasoned conclusions;
4. Evaluate the logic and validity of arguments, and the relevance of data and information;
5. Recognize and avoid common logical and rhetorical fallacies.

Course Objectives:

1. Students will will recognize and produce definitions of basic concepts essential to a critical examination and evaluation of argumentative discourse, e.g., argument, premise, conclusion, deductive validity, deductive soundness, truth-functional validity, quantificational validity.
2. Students will recognize and make competent use of important logical operations such as negation, conjunction, disjunction, conditional, and quantification.
3. Students will translate English sentences into two basic languages used in formal logic, viz., the language of truth-functional logic, and the languageof quantificatinal logic.
4. Students will apply standard techniques of truth table and natural deduction for truth-functional logic, involving important inference rules (e.g., modus ponens, modus tollens, reductio ad absurdum, disjunctive syllogism) to determine important truth-functional logical properties and relations: e.g., truth-functional validity, truth-functional consistency, truth-functional equivalence.
5. Students will apply standard techniques of natural deduction for quantificational logic, involving important inference rules (e.g., universal instantiation, existential elimination) to determine important quantificational logical properties and relations: e.g., quantificational validity, quantificational consistency, quantificational equivalence.
6. Students will construct examples to show important truth-functional logical properties and relations or their absence: examples to show truth-functional consistency and counterexamples to show failures of truth-functional validity and truth-functional equivalence
7. Students will construct examples to show important quantificational logical properties and relations or their absence: examples to show quantification consistency, and counterexamples to show failures of quantificational validity and quantificational equivalence
8. Students will recognize and avoid common logical fallacies: affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent, confusing ‘only if’ with ‘if and only if’, and confusing ‘some’ with ‘some but not all.’

The SLOs are targeted by the corresponding COs as follows:

COs

SLO 1 (1)-(5)

SLO 2 (3)-(7)

SLO 3 (2),(4)-(7)

SLO 4 (2)-(7)

SLO 5 (2)-(8)

Topics covered:

Concepts and skills specified as Student Learning Outcomes and Course Objectives

Texts:

• Language, Proof, and Logic, 2nd edition, by Barwise and Etchemendy. ISBN 978-1-57586-632-1.
  DO NOT BUY A USED TEXT. This text comes with software that is registered to the user. You will not be able to use the software if it has been registered to someone else.
• Handbook for Symbolic Logic, available for free download. There are two options:
  • download Handbook as one PDF (2 MB) , or
  • download Handbook in sections from table of contents.

Course requirements and methods of evaluation:

Requirements:

Homework	Solutions to be submitted via computer
4 tests	4 tests will be given, all required. No test grade will be dropped. There is no final exam. Test 4 will cover material introduced after Test 3. It will be given during the last scheduled class period.
Last test score	Regardless of average, a student must earn at least 50% on the last test to pass the course.

Evaluation:

Grades will be based on test scores and solutions to selected homework problems submitted via computer. These factors will be weighted as follows:

Homework Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4

16% 16% 16% 26% 26%

Participation and improvement may be taken into consideration in settling borderline grades. Minor adjustments may be made in the weightings above to reward improvement from Test 1 to Test 3 and/or from Test 2 to Test 4, or to more accurately reflect mastery of the material by the very rare student who does well on tests despite turning in very little homework.

Plus-minus grades will be used.

Make-up policy:

1. If you must miss a scheduled test, you must notify me by the day of that test. Call me directly, leave a message in the Philosophy Department office, or send me a message by email. If you cannot do any of these yourself, have someone contact me for you.
2. Make-ups for scheduled tests well be given only in case of legitimate excuses such as illness, death of a parent or sibling, or involvement in a car accident. Documentation (such as a doctor's bill or the police report from an accident ) may be required.
3. If you can attend class the day of a test but believe you have a good reason for taking a make-up instead, discuss this with me before starting the test. Once you begin, no make-up is possible.
4. Except in the most extraordinary circumstances, no make-ups will be given for a test once that test has been graded and returned to the class.

Homework assignments and grades:

See information about homework, such as
• how homework relates to course grades
• due dates for attempts at solutions and for completed solutions
• policies regarding homework credit

Special needs (such interpreters, note takers, or testing services):

Students with special needs should work with the office of Disability Resources and Educational Services, and should inform me of any accommodations that may be required.

Academic dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty is a very serious issue. For information on what constitutes academic dishonesty and on the possible repercussions of and penalties for acts of academic dishonesty, consult the CSUN Student Conduct Code in the University Catalog or at http://www.csun.edu/a&r/soc/studentconduct.html.

Last revised January 14, 2012.