cassandra.pinnick@wku.edu
Office: CH319C, 270 745.3136
Office Hours: Please see posted schedule on office door.
Philosophy 115-001, Elementary Logic, Fall 2006
Instructor: Dr. C. Pinnick
SYLLABUS
Recommended Text: Introduction to Logic, Copi and Cohen. (Available in WKU Bookstore and copies are on reserve in campus library.)
Required Outside Reading: Students must spend an appropriate amount of time, outside of class, reading significant public journal publications, such as the New York Times, Economist, Atlantic Monthly, Science, Scientific American, American Scientist, The Times (London).
Student Advisory: Make regular use of the unabridged O.E.D.!
Course Description: This course aims to study correct reasoning. The methodology includes techniques for analyzing, evaluating, and preparing arguments, fallacy identification, truth tables, formal proofs, and the application of qualitative and quantitative techniques to appraise the strength of deductive and ampliative arguments. Good reasoning requires the mastery of the skills just mentioned. A good grade in this course requires that students demonstrate mastery of the skills.
An overview of usual course topics includes:
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Basic Concepts
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Argument Analysis
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Fallacies
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Symbolic Logic
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The method of Deduction
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Proof Construction
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Quantification Theory
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Induction
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Argument by Analogy