[ Short Description ]
[ Schedule ]
[ Grades ]
[ Exam Requirements ]
[ Score Sheets ]
[ Announcement Lists/Group ]
[ For some information about this course, including CAPE comments, exam length, and academic integrity, click here ]

Short Description:

Content.

This course consists of two parts. In the first part (about 2/3 of the course) we will cover the basics of formal sentential logic, including transaltions into formal notation, truth tables, and proofs. In the second part (about 1/3 of the course), we will study informal reasoning, focusing on ways that it can commonly go wrong. Note that students in this class are expected to complete their own work, both problem sets and exams should represent the student's own work, and not be copied from other students or any other source. Violation of this is plagiarism and constitutes a violation of class and University policy.

Structure.

There are two lectures per week, and one discussion section. Grades are based on exams given in class.

Text, lecture podcasts, and other materials.

The text for the course is Basic Sentential Logic and Informal Fallacies (BSLIF), which is available at UCSD bookstore. This text is brief, and covers everything you will need to know, and nothing that you won't need to know. The text also contains the homework, and practice exams for both midterms and the final exam. So of all the materials for the course, it is probably the most important.

In addition to the text, there is a logic website for this course, that has additional exercises with solutions.

Also, all lectures -- including video, audio, and pdfs of powerpoint slides -- are freely available for download. 1. The easiest source for the lecture videos is Yahoo Videos. It is basically like Youtube, but Youtube has a 10 minute limit, and these lectures are much longer, so I put them on Yahoo. Click here for a list of all videos. 2. You can download the video files (in quicktime format) themselves onto your computer. Click here to go to a list of all movie files. 3. You can subscribe to a video podcast from iTunes (it is free). This will easily put all the lectures on your computer and/or iPod, iPhone, or any other portable video player capable of playing video podcasts. Click here for more information. 4. PDFs of the powerpoint slides can be downloaded here. 5. Audio files of the lectures (the same as the video lectures only without the video part) are here. These probably won't make much sense unless you also have the PDFs of the slides available (see (4) above). This audio with printouts of the slides is for anyone who has a non-video mp3 player. 6. A podcast with the audio mp3s and the slides in pdf format is available from the iTunes Music Store (again, free) here. This is just a quick convenient way to get (4) and (5).

 

Schedule:

10.01.07: BSLIF 1.1
10.03.07: BSLIF 1.1, 1.2
10.08.07: BSLIF 2.
10.10.07: BSLIF 2.2
10.15.07: BSLIF 2.3
10.17.07: BSLIF 2.4
10.22.07 CAMPUS CLOSED
10.24.07 CAMPUS CLOSED
10.29.07: Midterm One
10.31.07: BSLIF 3.1
11.05.07: BSLIF 3.1-3.2
11.07.07: BSLIF 3.2
11.14.07: BSLIF 3.3
11.19.07: BSLIF 3.4
11.21.07: BSLIF 3
11.26.07: Midterm Two
11.28.07: BSLIF 4.1 - 4.6
12.03.07: BSLIF 5.1 - 5.5
12.05.07: BSLIF 6.1 - 6.4
Final Exam: Saturday, December 15, 2007, Room TBA, probably Center 101.

Grades:

There are 1000 points possible for the course. This is broken down as follows: 200 for each of two midterms exams, for a total of 400. 100 points total for all homework. The final is worth 500 points.

The final exam's 500 points are broken down as follows. 125 will correspond to material from Midterm One. 125 will correspond to material from Midterm 2. The reamining 250 points will cover material covered in the last third of the course: everything after Midterm Two.

Letter grades will not be assigned until after all points are in. The worst-case scenario is that it will be a straight 10% breadkdown: 90%-100% will be A-, A or A+; 80%-89.9% will be B-, B or B+; and so forth. So if you need to get a C-, for example, you should plan on getting at least 700 points out of the 1000 possible. Depending on the class average, the grade cut-offs may be curved downward a bit -- for example one quarter the A- cut-off was 880 points rather than 900. But you should not count on any such curving down. The grade cut-offs will not be curved up, however, meaning that the straight 10% breakddown is the highest that the grade cut-offs will be set.

Special pleading at the end of the course will have no effect. Every quarter a certain number of students who apparently need to pass the class in order to graduate or remain eligible for some sort of aid, or whatever, miss the C- cut-off, or the D cut-off, or whatever it is that they need. Some of these students are then unable to graduate, or maintain eligibility for something, or whatever. If this is your situation then you need to make sure you pass the class. We have office hours and are happy to help if you are having trouble with the material; practice exams are available for you to assess your own level of preparation. I and the TAs are happy to spend time with anyone who needs it to help them get a handle on the material so they can do well on the exams. But it is your responsibility to attend lecture, attend sections, study the material, do homework, and take practice exams, and and come to office hours if you need help. We will NOT adjust grades after they have been assigned, except in cases where an actual error of some sort has been made. See the section below on how to do well in this course for more advice on how to insure that you pass the class. It is no fun being unable to graduate because you missed a C- by 2 points out of 1000, and I don't like having to be the one who fills out the D or F on the grade sheet. So do us both a favor and be certain that you learn the material well enough to pass the class. I apologize for the negative tone of this paragraph, but I take it that the vast majority of the students in this class who work hard and study the material do so on the assumption that the grade they earn on that basis means something. They are depending on me to not do things like give some other student who didn't work as hard to understand the material as well the same grade just because this other student did some lobbying after the quarter was over. Every student's grade is determined by the points they receive, including those who miss a grade cut-off by 1 point out of 1000. I am spending so much time on this topic because, as I said, I don't like being the one who fills out the F or D on the grade sheet for a student who was planning to graduate, has a job lined up, etc. So please, study, attend lecture, do the practice exams, go to section -- and ask questions if there is stuff you don't understand. See me or the TAs is you need help. Don't take a risk by not studying, skipping lectures or homework, and try to estimate how much you can slack off and 'probably' still pass.

No make-up exams will be given. If you miss a midterm exam for a legitimate reason, such as serious medical injury or illness, then the points will be made up in the following way: The final exam has sections that correspond to material from Midterm One and Midterm Two -- each worth 125 points. If a student misses a midterm exam for a legitimate reason, then the points that the student earns on that section of the final that corresponds to the missed exam will be multiplied by 2, and that number used for the student's exam score (because 125 x 2 = 250). Legitimate reasons include serious illness with a doctor's note. Personal travel plans that conflict with the schedule, forgetting about the exam, etc., are not legitimate excuses.

In order to help accomodate students with scheduling issues, an early version of the final will be given, usually 4 - 7 days before the normally scheduled exam, depending on the final exam schedule. Exact place and time willl be annonced in class and on the email lists.

Requirements for taking the exams:

No notes or books or other materials are allowed during the exam. You will need only one or more blue books, and one or more writing implements. The exam will have a sheet for recording your multiple choice answers. All work, and solutions to problems that are not multiple choice, must be written in the blue books. The exam should be placed inside the blue book and turned in with it when you turn your exam in.

Time is a factor in the exams. In order to ensure that everyone has the same amount of time, the following procedures are implemented. The first page of the exam is the multiple choice answer sheet. When we hand out the exams, do not turn that page and start working on the exam until we say so, which we will do when everyone has a copy of the exam. This will ensure that everyone has the same start time. I will keep time, and will write on the board rough estimates of how much time is left. I will announce when 5 minutes are left, then 2, then 1, then 30 seconds, then 10 seconds, and will count down from 5 to 0. There will be a number of boxes in which you must turn in your exam. Any of the designated boxes is fine. When the announced time reaches zero, lids are placed on the boxes, and any exam not in the box at that time will have 10 points deducted, no exceptions. This will ensure that everyone has the same end time. But let me be perfectly clear: the lids will be placed on the boxes simultaneously with the beginning of my pronunciation of the 'z' in zero. If your exam is not entirely in the box at that instant, then it will have 10 points deducted. So, for example, if any part of your hand is still touching any part of the paper on your blue book when the 'z' in 'zero' begins to sound, then you've just lost 10 points. I belabor this because every quarter, especially for the first exam, there are anywhere from 1 to 4 students who are standing near one of the designated boxes, and when they hear 'zero' and see the lid go on, reach out to stick their exam in, apparently thinking that being within a second or two of the announcement of 'zero' is good enough. And then they are surprised to see me take the exam and put it in the 10-points-off stack. My recommendation would be to practice enough so that you are turning in your exam with 5 or 10 minutes to go (as a number of students do); failing that, even if there are questions unanswered, I would recommend having your exam in the box before I start the 10 second countdown. If there happens to be a crowd at the box you are at such that you can't get it in, then this is not an excuse. Hopefully that won't happen, but it is your responsibility to get your exam in the box before the lid goes on. The point of this procedure is fairness. Unless there is some absolutely clear and strictly enforced deadline, there will be some students who continue to work on their exam after the end of time has been announced, and students who did turn their exam in when time was up will then rightfully feel cheated, since those students who continued to work will have had more time on the exam. The only way to guarantee fairness for everyone is for there to be a clear and mercilessly enforced deadline. I apologize for the heavy-handed procedure on this, but I do it not because I like being heavy-handed, but because ensuring that everyone is treated absolutely equally is a high priority for me.

Score Sheets

Links to score sheets for each section are below. These will be updated after each exam. Scores are listed by a coded version of your student ID number in order to protect privacy, as per University regulations. In order to determine what your coded ID number is, do the following. Take your student ID number. This will be something like a letter followed by 8 digits, like "A01234567". Remove the letter and the first digit, and you're left with a string of 7 digits, like "1234567". Take the first four digits, and treat this as a 4 digit number (something between 0000 and 9999); and take the last four digits and treat this like another 4-digit number. In the example above, they would be "1234" and "4567". Add these two numbers together, for example: 1234 + 4567 = 5801. If the number you get is 5 digits, remove the first digit to make it 4 digits long; if it is 4, then keep it at 4 digits. This is your coded ID number. To see another example: If your student ID is "A05367921", you drop the first letter and number: "5367921"; then take the first 4 digits: "5367"; and the last 4 digits "7921"; add them together: 5367+7921=13288. If the result is 5 digits, remove the first digit: "3288". If you cannot find your row on the score sheet, first make sure you figured your coded ID correctly. 80% of the time students can't find their score it is because they figured their coded ID incorrectly. Next, check other score sheets, especially if you changed sections at some point in the quarter or added late. If you still have trouble, email me with your name, section, your student ID number, and what you figured your coded ID number to be.

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Online Announcement List:

There is a Google group for this class, and it is a course requirement that you either subscribe to the list and set your membership to receive email announcements, or that you regularly, at least once or twice a week, check the page online to read the announcements. You can get to the announcement page here:

http://groups.google.com/group/ucsd-phil-10-fall-07

I recommend that you click on that link now, and sign up for the group. Don't worry, only I and the TAs can post, so you won't be getting a lot of spam. If you have any trouble, click HERE for a step-by-step walkthrough of how to sign up.

If for whatever reason you don't wish to sign up, that is OK. You can still visit the page to read any announcements without signing up. But the announcements won't be emailed to you, you will have to remember to visit the page often to read the announcements. Remember, you are responsible for any information or announcements posted to this group.

When the quarter is over, and it is clear that no more announcements will be needed (like where to pick up finals, or whatever), I will delete this group. So if you are subscribed, there wil be no need to unsubscribe.

How to do well in this course:

Subscribe to the announcement list. Attend all the lectures, and read the corresponding chapters of the text before the lecture. Attend the discussion sections, and do all homework assigned by the TA. Use the homework, and other non-assigned exercises (in the text or on the website) to determine for yourself how well you have mastered the material. If anything doesn't make sense, you can see the lecture again in video version (see above), you can read the relevant parts of the book again. And of course if you need additional help, ask your TA or myself. We have office hours. The earilier you get clear on some issue that is giving you trouble, the better it will be for everybody.

For each exam, 2 practice exams are available in the text. I recommend that before the actual exam, you administer one of the exams to yourself, giving yourself only 45 minutes. Then grade your exam (answers will be emailed out on the email lists). This will allow you to find what material, if any, you need to work on some more. Consult myself or the TA, or simply do more excercises of the type you need to improve on until you feel you have mastered this material. Repeat the proceedure with the second practice exam.

This will be a very manageable class IF you simply keep up with the material, regularly practice by doing exercises, and ask for help as soon as you need it.

Many students end up getting grades much worse than they expect because they do not follow the above advice. The material looks easy when you read through it or watch someone else work a proof or truth table, and many students then think "That looks easy, I'll be able to do that on a test." But as some students learn the hard way, watching someone do it is a lot easier than doing it yourself. Furthermore, the exams are long. Purposefully long. Most students do not finish them. The only way to get to the point where you can do the problems quickly and accurately is to do a lot of practice. [Amazingly, I give people this advice every time I teach this class, and every time a large chunk of students still fall into exactly these traps.]