Instructor: Dan Mittag
Course: PHL110 [CRN 32632]
Office: Lattimore 526
Telephone: 275-8147
Email: dlmt@mail.rochester.edu
Course Webpage: http://mail.rochester.edu/~dlmt/courses/PHL110.html
Office Hours: Mondays 10-11:00 and Wednesdays 10:30-11:45.
| Description
| Materials | Objectives | Policies | Resources |Assignments | Requirements | Schedule
|
This will be a first course in symbolic logic through predicate logic with identity. Students will learn how to translate ordinary English sentences into formal, symbolic expressions, how to show that arguments are invalid, and how to construct proofs of arguments. After successfully completing this course, students will have the abilities to determine and to carefully demonstrate whether or not an argument is valid. These skills are particularly important in analyzing arguments in both academic and nonacademic contexts.
Late Assignments: All assignments must be
finished and turned in on time.
Late homework assignments will not be
accepted. Make-up exams will only be
given in extreme circumstances (that are also
documented). In such a case, you
will be responsible for scheduling an alternate time to take the exam as soon
as you are aware you will not be able to take the regularly scheduled exam.
Attendance and Participation:
Two things are clearly and consistently
detrimental to one’s performance in this class: (1) failing to attend class, and (2) failing to do the
accompanying exercises. In order
to do well, you will need to keep up with the homework and come to class
prepared. Each section of the
course builds on what we have covered previously; so failing to do the work on
one section will at least put you at a disadvantage and may be an
insurmountable obstacle to succeeding in this course. Put simply, it is in your interest not to miss class
and to do the accompanying exercises as we cover the material.
I should emphasize that
additional help is available by talking to me. Feel free to send me an email or call with questions or
concerns, or please stop by during my office hours.
Logic Coach: As mentioned above, a free
computer program is available that will allow you to check your answers to (at
least most of) the problems in the text.
You can download it here. [Just click on “Logic Coach IV” to take
you to the download site.] I do
recommend that you use it, though I do want to caution you about one
thing. At the present time, this
is a version made to accompany the 8th edition of this
textbook. So, not all of the
exercises in the text may be available.
If you find that you run into problems with this, let me know so that I
can make a note of it.
Exercises: Completing the exercises is crucial to doing well in this
course. When appropriate I will be
making available a bunch of extra exercises that you can do to gain additional
practice. Performing translations
and proofs are abilities that only come with practice; so you are well advised
to keep up with these exercises.
You will have a chance in class to ask questions regarding problems you
have had difficulty completing.
Errata: Please note that this book does
have a number of crucial mistakes in it. Nevertheless, the explanations are
very good, as is the general presentation of the material. To help avoid any problems that might
arise from this, I will be handing out a complete list of corrections. If you would like you can download
another copy at the book’s companion
site. [Update (01-29-04): Note that these documented mistakes are limited
to the first printing. Many of you
have the second printing, and there these mistakes have been corrected.]
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Homework
|
15%
|
Due: most Fridays |
|
Predicate
Logic Quiz |
10%
|
4/14 |
|
Exam
One |
25%
|
2/11 |
|
Exam
Two |
25%
|
3/19 |
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Final
Exam |
25% |
5/8 (4:00 pm) *see
schedule for alternate |
The weekly schedule is
available at: http://mail.rochester.edu/~dlmt/courses/PHL110schedule.html.
(You may also link to it from the link provided at the top of the page.)