PHIL 235 Logic
This course is an introduction to logic. It will begin with basic skills such as identifying arguments, premises and conclusions, as well as assumptions, in ordinary language. Students will learn to recognize different forms of arguments and basic types of inference and argument. We will cover basic logical concepts from what logic is, to recognizing arguments to being able to diagram arguments and analyze them for their validity or soundness. Students will be encouraged to examine the nature of language and definitions, and discuss fallacies in deductive, inductive, and informal forms. We will focus on formal logic, including categorical propositions and syllogisms and propositional and predicate logic. Students will learn to translate ordinary language arguments into formal arguments and analyze their reasoning, as well as learn to do formal proofs. The course may also introduce probabilities and address the use of statistics; or also discuss different traditions of logical analysis, e.g., as developed by the Buddhist logicians.
Prerequisite
Placement in this course determined by mathematics placement test or instructor permission