Symbolic Logic

Philosophy 340

Fall 2005

Course Overview: The objective of this course is to acquaint students with a formal logic system that can be used to evaluate deductive arguments. We will cover both sentential and predicate logic, giving informal semantics and complete proof procedures for Sentential Logic and for First Order Logic. Students are urged to keep up with the work-both the reading assignments and written work; the course is cumulative, and students will find it difficult to do the work for any given week if they have not mastered the previous weeks' material.

Texts: Understanding Symbolic Logic, 4th edition, by Virginia Klenk

Exercises: The only way to really learn this material is to practice at solving problems. Accordingly, there will be regular homework assignments. The schedule below gives both the assignments and the due dates. Homework will be due at the beginning of class on the scheduled date. Late exercises will not be credited under and circumstances. They may be turned in to be checked, however. While your performance on these exercises will not be counted toward your final grade, any student failing to hand in more than 3 sets of exercises on time will suffer a grade penalty. You might want to work on the exercises early so that you can ask me questions before they are due.

Exams: There will be three in-class tests; the dates for these exams are on the schedule below. The final exam will take place during exam week. All students will be expected to take the exams on these dates, so please plan accordingly.

Grades: Final grades will be computed by taking an average of the test scores, with each of the in-class exams counting for 20% and the final exam counting for 40%. If the student misses more than three of the exercises, then a grade penalty will be imposed, proportional to the number of exercises missed.

Policies:

(1) You are responsible for all assignments to be handed in. Excuses for an assignment not being handed it such as you handed in the paper to my mailbox, slid it under my door, or gave it to a friend to hand in are unacceptable. I will take assignments placed in my mailbox, but if the assignment never shows up for whatever reason, it will count as late. You should be in class to hand in all assignments; otherwise you take the risk of not getting credit for your work.

(2) I will not allow any late assignments to be handed in or allow make-up exams unless there is some good reason (it should be a true emergency – not a family vacation or birth of a niece or nephew). In any event, written documentation will be required. You should get in touch with me as soon as possible if such a situation arises.

(3) You are expected to be in class and have done the reading for the day. It is simple courtesy to be in class on time and in your seat. If you have to be late for some reason, please enter the room and take your seat quietly, so as not to disturb the class. PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELLPHONES AND PAGERS. Finally, do not stand up and walk out in the middle of the class period. This is distracting and rude to the other students and me. If you must leave early for some reason, please talk to me before class and sit near the door.

Schedule: In the schedule below, the column headed "Read" indicates which chapter in the text the student should read for the week. This reading should be completed as early as possible. Exercises are due on Mondays (except after Labor Day). The earlier you begin to work on the exercises, the more time you will have to ask me questions either in class or during my office hours. Again, these dates are tentative: I will try to stick to them as closely as possible, but they may change if events warrant it.