PHIL 102 Introduction to Logic

An introduction to the practice and study of reason, focusing on how to analyze arguments and how not to jump to conclusions. Special attention is paid to recognizing informal fallacies (the logical tricks which dominate political discourse in America today) and to understanding conditional (if … then …) statements. Students will be expected to write rigorous proofs. There will be a strong emphasis on symbolic logic (propositional logic including natural deduction).

Credits

3

Hours Weekly

3

Course Objectives

1. Identify and organize an approach to evaluating arguments that includes: recognizing premise(s) and conclusion, understanding the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions, as well as the definitions of validity, soundness, strength, and cogency.
2. Explore the possibility that the formal fallacies of denying the antecedent and affirming the consequent have been committed.
3. Analyze and evaluate arguments and claims to determine whether Informal Fallacies have been committed.
4. Apply analytic skills to render English sentences into propositional form, recognize the nature of truth functional operators, construct truth tables for propositions/arguments, prove conclusions using the eighteen rules of inference and replacement.

Course Objectives

1. Identify and organize an approach to evaluating arguments that includes: recognizing premise(s) and conclusion, understanding the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions, as well as the definitions of validity, soundness, strength, and cogency.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Midterm exam

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT1
2. Explore the possibility that the formal fallacies of denying the antecedent and affirming the consequent have been committed.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Midterm exam

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT2
3. Analyze and evaluate arguments and claims to determine whether Informal Fallacies have been committed.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Informal fallacies project

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT3
4. Apply analytic skills to render English sentences into propositional form, recognize the nature of truth functional operators, construct truth tables for propositions/arguments, prove conclusions using the eighteen rules of inference and replacement.

   Learning Activity Artifact

   • Other (please fill out box below)
   • Final exam

   Procedure for Assessing Student Learning

   • Critical and Creative Thinking Rubric

   Critical Thinking

   • CT4