Course Information Overview
Philosophy 230: Introduction to Formal Logic
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course satisfies the “Critical Reasoning” (A-2) 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.
To satisfy this requirement we will cover a natural deduction system of elementary symbolic logic (first-order logic), including both sentential logic and predicate logic. Equal attention will be given to translations and proofs. We will also discuss philosophical aspects of symbolic logic when appropriate.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Four (75 minute) Exams—for 80% of the final grade. These exams will be given according to the tentative schedule of topics. I will drop your lowest exam grade and average the remaining three scores. There is no Final Exam in the course.
2. Participation--10% of final grade. Attendance will noted at each class session. Participation will be judged on the basis of a student's willingness to take an active role in the course, including response to exercises.
3. Homework—10% of final grade. When collected, they will be graded for completion rather than accuracy.
CLASS FORMAT:
Lectures and homework exercises. Initially lectures will be given to introduce new material or difficult concepts. The majority of this course will be devoted to detailed examination of homework exercises. Learning symbolic logic is like learning mathematics or a foreign language because it requires daily practice. Students who let the assignments accumulate usually do not do well on exams.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF TOPICS:
Part One: Sentential Logic
1. Basic Concepts, Truth Functions, Translations
Chapters, 1 and 2.
Exam 1
2. Truth Tables (Statements, Pairs of Statements and Arguments)
Chapter 3
Exam 2
3. Formal Proofs of Validity in Propositional Logic
Chapter 4
4. Conditional and Indirect Proofs
Chapter 5
Exam 3
Part Two: Predicate Logic
5. Predicate Logic-Translations
Chapter 7, 8
6. Proofs in Predicate Logic
Chapter 9
Exam 4