Time: MW 2:00 - 2:50 pm
Room: LANGY A221
Instructor: Rick Grush (grush+@pitt.edu)
Office Hours: M 3:30 - 5:00
Office: 1028J CL
Teaching Assistant:
Vasanth Venkatachalam: vavst4+@pitt.edu
Office Hours T 5-6, F 2:30-3:30.
Location: Phil Grad student offices, 14th Floor, CL.
Short Description:
This course will introduce the rudiments of formal logic, including symbolization, truth tables, proofs in propositional and first order quantificational logic. We will also devote a few lectures at the end of the semester to informal fallacies.
The text is Understanding symbolic logic 3e, Viginia Klenk. We will proceed through the Klenk text up to and including Chapter 15, and then spend a little time on informal fallacies, which will be discussed in lecture exclusively.
Schedule:
The schedule is somewhat flexible, but to a first approximation:
Session 01 (01.05): Intro, Klenk 1, 2
Session 02 (01.10): Klenk 2, 3
Session 03 (01.19): Klenk 4
Session 04 (01.24): Klenk 5
Session 05 (01.26): Klenk 6
Session 06 (01.31): Klenk 7
Session 07 (02.02): Klenk 7
Session 08 (02.07): Klenk 8
Session 09 (02.09): Klenk 9
Session 10 (02.14): Klenk 9
Session 11 (02.16): First Midterm (Solutions)
Session 12 (02.21): Klenk 10
Session 13 (02.23): Klenk 11
Session 14 (02.28): Klenk 12
Session 15 (03.01): Klenk 13
Session 16 (03.13): Klenk 14
Session 17 (03.15): Klenk 14
Session 18 (03.20): Klenk 15
Session 19 (03.22): Klenk 15
Session 20 (03.27): Second Midterm (Solutions)
Session 21 (03.29): Informal fallacies
Session 22 (04.03): Informal fallacies
Session 23 (04.05): Informal fallacies
Session 24 (04.10): Informal fallacies
Session 25 (04.12): Informal fallacies
Session 26 (04.17): Third Midterm (Solutions TBA)
Session 27 (04.19): Final Examination (Solutions TBA)
Exams:
There will be 4 exams -- 3 midterms and one final exam. The midterms are not cumulative, and will cover material only since the previous midterm. Each is worth 100 points. The final exam is cumulative. It will consist of three sections, each corresponding to the material covered on one of the midterms. Each section of the final will be worth about 33 points, for a total of 100. All exams are in-class and closed-book. Practice exams are available on this website.
There will be no make-up exams. If you miss an exam for a good reasons, such as a medical excuse with a doctor's note, the points will be made up by multiplying your score on the corresponding part of the final exam by 3.
Graded exams will be returned in recitation sections. Statistics (average score, etc.) will be posted on this website.
Grades:
Grades are based on 2 components.
i) Exams. Each exam is worth 100 points, for a total of 400 points. Grades will initially be determined from this point total, based roughly on a 10% scale (i.e. 90%-100% = A, 80%-89.99% = B, etc.). Though this scale may be adjusted upward or downward depending on how the class as a whole does, and instructor's whims.
ii) The grade as determined in (i) above may be adjusted upward or downward by up to 1 letter grade by the TA, based on recitation attendence, participation, and homework. Consult the TA for details about how this component will work.
Practice Exams:
These will be made available here approximately 7 - 10 days before the exam.
Exam One:
Exam Two:
Exam Three:
Final Exam:
Informal Fallacy List:
-- Appeal
to Force -- Appeal
to Authority -- Slippery
Slope -- Ad
Hominem --
-- Ad
Populum -- False
Cause -- Straw
Man -- Argument
from Ignorance --
-- False
Dichotomy -- Weak
Analogy -- Hasty
Generalization --
Exam Statistics:
TBA.
Email List:
There is an email distribution list for this course -- 0500@mind.philosophy.pitt.edu -- and subscribing to it is required. The two purposes of the list are i) to allow me to distribute information regarding changes of schedule, etc., and ii) to provide a means for students to ask questions and continue discussion outside of class time. The list is set up so that all and only people subscribed to it can post to the list.
To subscribe: send an email to listserv@mind.philosophy.pitt.edu. The subject line should be blank, and the body of the message should contain one line of the following form:
SUBSCRIBE 0500 FIRSTNAME LASTNAME
Where the "FIRSTNAME" and "LASTNAME" are placeholders for your actual name. For example:
SUBSCRIBE 0500 Bertrand Russell
You will receive automatic confirmation that your subscription was processed, or an error message if there was some problem. [NOTE: Some email programs, notably MS Outlook Express, add formatting characters to the beginning of outgoing messages (MIME coding) that screws up the listserv program. If you receive a 'syntax error' message, but are sure you did everything correctly, this is probably the problem. To get around it, send the email from a bare bones program, like PINE or UNIX Mail.]
To post: send the message you wish to post to 0500@mind.philosophy.pitt.edu. The message will be sent to everyone subscribing to the list.
[Note that the address to which one sends a subscription request is not the same as the address to which one posts messages. Subscription requests are sent to listserv@mind.philosophy.pitt.edu and posts are sent to 0500@mind.philosophy.pitt.edu.]
How to do well in this course:
Attend the lectures, and read the corresponding chapters of the text before the lecture. Attend the recitation sections, and do all homework assigned by the TA. Use the homework, and other non-assigned exercises in the text to determine for yourself how well you have mastered the material. If you need additional help, ask the 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, I will provide 2 practice axams available from this website. I recommend that before the actual exam, you administer one of the exams to yourself, giving yourself only 50 minutes. Then grade your exam (answers will also be provided on this website). 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 from the corresponding chapters of the text 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.