Syllabus, Philosophy 170, Fall 2004
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Professor: Allen Stairs 1125 301-405-5695 stairs@umd.edu |
TA: Benedict Chan 1108A 301-405-5701 bschan@umd.edu |
TA: Lillian Lovich 1103 301-405-5746 lillianlovich@yahoo.com |
TA: Zach Myers 1110D 301-405-5747 zdmyers@wam.umd.edu |
This is a basic course in symbolic logic. It will call on your skill at unraveling the meaning and structure of English sentences and it will also sharpen your analytical and formal skills. Philosophy 170 satisfies the math and formal reasoning CORE area, and in some ways it is a math course. That means that symbols will be a big part of the apparatus we use and it means that the sort of precise application of rules that math calls for will be important. Most people are quite capable of handling all this. However, it's very important that if you find yourself having difficulties, you get help quickly. The material is cumulative; you can't follow the later stuff if you haven't mastered what comes before. Practice is also essential. You can't learn a skill without working on it. Logic is a skill. Most people need daily practice. (Think about learning a language or, for that matter, learning to play basketball or guitar.)
A lot of people find that once they get into the swing of things, logic is actually fun. That's not really any great surprise. Most people enjoy exercising skills. That's one reason why games are popular. And if you are a crossword aficionado, you may well find that doing logic is entertaining in the same sort of way.
The test is Virginia Klenk's Understanding Symbolic Logic. It's clearly written and has lots of exercises. We will be doing things differently from Klenk in various ways but for the most part we will follow the order of the text. I plan to do the first 16 chapters.
Tests and grades: There will be two in-class tests and a final exam. All three are weighted equally, at 30% each. There will also be some short in-class assignments, done in your Friday sections. These will be graded as either "Done" or "Not Done." In other words, if you do them, you get the credit and if you don't, you don't get the credit. These will make up 10% of your grade. You will be allowed 2 unexcused absences from these in-class tests. If you miss an in-class assignment with an excuse, you will need to provide documentation and you will need to make up the assignment.
Dates of Tests :
Test #1: October 5
Test # 2: November 9
Final Exam: December 16, 10:30 am
Academic Honesty:
I take it very seriously. I've successfully prosecuted offenders on several occasions. Your work must be your own unless you are explicitly to ld otherwise. And you will get in trouble if you bring unauthorized aids to class or if you try text messaging your friends to get answers.
Rough Schedule of Topics:
What follows is subject to revision if that seems appropriate. However, test dates are meant to be firm and will only be changed if there is a very good reason.
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Sept. 2 Truth Tables ( |
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Sept. 7 Symbols ( |
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Sept. 9 Truth Tables and Validity ( |
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Sept. 14 Validity continued, other uses of table (Chs. 5 and 6) |
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Sept. 16 Tables continued, proofs (Chs. 6 and 7) |
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Sept. 21 Proofs ( |
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Sept. 23 Replacement rules (Ch. 8) |
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Sept. 28 Replacement rules |
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FIRST TEST October 5 |
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Oct. 7 Conditional and Indirect Proof ( |
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Oct. 14 Conditional and Indirect Proof |
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Oct. 19 Conditional and Indirect Proof |
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Oct. 21 Singular, quantified sentences, Categoricals (Ch. 10, 11, 12) |
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Oct. 26 Quantifiers and Categoricals (Chs. 11 ands 12) |
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Oct. 28 More advanced symbolization (Chs. 13 and 14) |
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Nov. 2 Symbolization, Quantifiers and proofs (Chs. 13, 14, 15) |
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Nov. 4 Symbolization, Quantifiers and proofs |
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SECOND TEST November
9 |
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Nov. 9 Proofs (Ch. 15 and handout) |
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Nov. 11 Proofs |
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Nov. 16 Proofs |
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Nov. 18 Proofs, |
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Nov. 30 (Nov. 22 TBA) Proofs, Invalidity ( |
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Dec. 2 Invalidity ( |
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Dec. 7 Invalidity |
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Dec. 9 Invalidity |