Caption: The heading row descibes the categories of information about the course,
while the row in the table body holds the course information itself.
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Course Prefix
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Course Number
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Course Title
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Lecture/Lab Hours
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Credit Hours
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PHI
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102
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Symbolic Logic
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3 Lecture/Demonstration Hours
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3 Credit Hours
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Course description
Introduces the student to formal symbolic logic. After an introduction to the concept
of argument, students will learn both Aristotelian and modern symbolic logic. Applications
to the real world may include contracts, legal arguments, and computer languages.
(pending IAI H4 906)
Topical outline
- Arguments: premises, conclusions, and indicator words
- Propositions, truth-values, induction v. deduction
- Validity, invalidity, counterexamples
- Aristotelian logic
- Modern symbolic logic
- Formal fallacies
Method of presentation
1. Lecture
2. Other:
a. Models of problem solving
b. Student presentations of homework problems
c. Computer based instruction using CD-ROMs that accompany textbooks
Student outcomes
The student should...
- identify arguments, premises and conclusions.
- distinguish between inductive and deductive arguments.
- prove invalidity through the use of counterexamples and truth tables.
- identify the elements and attributes of categorical propositions.
- test the validity of arguments by using the square of opposition.
- construct truth table definitions for symbols used in propositional logic.
- translate compound statements and arguments into symbolic form.
- construct a variety of proofs, using rules of inference and replacement.
- construct conditional and indirect proofs.
- analyze ordinary language arguments using the methods of formal logic.
Method of evaluation
Typical classroom techniques
Course content learning outcomes
Additional assessment information (optional)
Daily homework assignments of problem sets from the text. Such assignments would include,
for example, translation of ordinary language arguments to symbolic logic, use of
truth tables to establish the validity or invalidity of arguments, use of the rules
of inference and replacement to derive the conclusions of arguments from their premises.
Textbooks
Required
- Hurley, Patrick J.. A Concise Introduction to Logic. 11th Edition. Wadsworth, 2011
- Layman, C. Stephen. The Power of Logic. 3rd Edition Edition. McGraw-Hill, 2005
- Copi, Irving M., & Carl Cohen. Introduction to Logic. 13th Edition. Prentice Hall,
2008
Supplementary materials
None
Software
None
Updated: Spring 2021
