Colorado State University: PHILOSOPHY 210

INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC

Where: Eddy 7

When: 9:00 a.m. -- 9:50 a.m. M/W/F

Instructor: Darko Sarenac

Office: Eddy 235

Phone: (970) 491-5441

Hours: Mon 2--3 p.m./Wed 10--11a.m. and by appointment

Web: phil210.pbwiki.com

Email: Darko.Sarenac at colostate.edu

Text: The required text for the course is

Barwise and Etchemendy's Language, Proof, and Logic.

Because of software licensing and use of the Grade Grinder facilities, you need to have a new copy of the text with the LPL software. ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE TO THIS REQUIREMENT.

Final Exam: tba (Location: tba)

Course Description: What is an argument? What distinguishes a good argument from a bad one? Are there conceptual tools we can use to produce and understand arguments? These are the questions which Logic seeks to answer. The ability to reason clearly, state your position forcefully, and understand the arguments of others is essential in any field you might pursue (Law, the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, Business, Philosophy, etc...) In this course, we study the essential tools of logic: Propositional and Predicate (First-Order) Logic. Students gain hands-on experience in using these logical systems through the use of the "Language, Proof and Logic" textbook and software package. Students gain a thorough understanding of these logical systems and their application to real-world argumentation drawn from legal, scientific, and philosophical reasoning.

Course Requirements: Bi-weekly homework assignment and quizzes worth 30% of your grade, Midterm I worth 15%, Midterm II worth 25% and Final Exam worth 30%. Check Assignments for details.

Attendance is Mandatory: We will be taking attendance at the beginning of each class. Each student is allowed up to 3 unexcused absences. After that, each absence will cost you 3% of the overall grade. (For example, if you miss 13 classes, 3 excused and 10 unexcused, and your final percentage for the class before calculating absences is say 78%, your actual grade will be based on deducting 10x3%=30%, i.e., it will be 78%-30%=48%. Thus 10 unexcused absences can bring you from a solid B to failing the class.)

Homeworks 1, 2, and 3: Submitting homeworks 1, 2 and 3 on time is a necessary precondition for passing this class. If you fail to submit one of these homeworks on time, you will not pass the course and we strongly advise you to drop before the drop deadline.

A Note on Difficulty of the Class: This class will likely be one of the hardest 200 level classes that you will have taken at Colorado State University. We strongly urge you to start working on day one of the semester and to do what you can not to fall behind the schedule. In our experience, a great majority of students who fall behind do not recover and end up dropping or worse failing the class.

It is your responsibility to:

* properly enroll in the class

* be clear on any announcements I make in class regarding–but not limited to–such things as exact exam dates, changes in the class outline, scheduling changes, etc.

* get all notes and handouts if you miss a class

* makeup any missed exams; unless made up, a missed exam scores a zero.

Assignments

Schedule of Lectures

LPL website: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/LPL/

Ask your classmates a question