PHIL240 - 19b
Philosophy 240 - Intro to Logic Syllabus - Summer 2019
Course time & place: 2:00 - 3:35pm, YMCA 109/114
Instructor: Sean Conte, SRConte_AT_tamu.edu
Office hours: Before and after class by appointment, YMCA 422
Course description: An argument is a list of sentences where the last is the conclusion and the rest are premises. What makes some arguments good and others not? One answer is validity. A valid argument is one where the premises entail the conclusion. That is, if the premises were true, then the conclusion would have to be as well. Deductive logic is the formal study of validity, and the majority of this class will focus on it. Inductive logic on the other hand is concerned with probabilistic support. That is, sometimes premises do not guarantee a conclusion, but they do make it more likely to be true. Our goal here is understanding Bayes’ rule.
Text: Language, Proof, and Logic by John Barwise and John Etchemendy
DO NOT BUY USED, the code to submit assignments wont work!
Objectives: – Understand what it means for an argument to be valid. – Build techniques for proving arguments valid or invalid. – Understand what it means for an argument to be strong. – Develop a familiarity with probability and Bayes’ theorem.
Grading:
40% - Daily quizzes/assignments
40% - Weekly tests
20% - Final exam
• Disability Statement: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti- discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accom- modation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an ac- commodation, please contact Disability Services, currently located in the Disability Services building at the Student Services at White Creek complex on west campus or call 979-845-1637. For additional information, visit http://disability.tamu.edu.
Schedule
Week 1 (August 27th − 31st): Formal Language
Monday: NO CLASS - Memorial Day
Tuesday: Chapter 1 - Atomic Sentences
Wednesday: Chapter 2 - The Logic of Atomic Sentences
Thursday: Chapter 3 - Boolean Connectives
Friday: Formal Language Test (take home)/ Chapter 4 - Evaluating Sentences with Truth Tables
Week 2 (June 3rd − 7th): Basic Proofs
Monday: Chapter 4 - Evaluating Arguments with Truth Tables
Tuesday: Chapter 5/6 - Formal Proofs: Basic Rules
Wednesday: Chapters 5/6 - Formal Proofs: Sub-proof Rules
Thursday: Practice with Proofs
Friday: Practice with Proofs
Week 3 (10th − 14th): Conditionals
Monday: Basic Proofs Test
Tuesday: Chapter 7 - Translations and Truth Tables for Conditionals
Wednesday: Chapter 8 - Proofs Rules for Conditionals
Thursday: Practice with Proofs with Conditionals
Friday: Conditionals Test
Week 4 (17th − 21st): Quantified Logic
Monday: Chapter 9 - Introduction to Quantifiers
Tuesday: Chapter 10 - The Logic of Quantifiers
Wednesday: Chapter 11 - Multiple Quantifiers
Thursday: Practice with quantifiers
Friday: Quantifiers test
Week 5 (24th − 28th): Probability
Monday: Deductive versus Inductive Logic
Tuesday: Bayes’ rule
Wednesday: Practice
Thursday: Practice
Friday: Probability test
Final Exam (July 1st):
Monday: 3:30-5:30pm
∗ Inclusive