PHIL 222 Syllabus Fall 23

Fall 2023 PHIL 222: Logic Section 001; CRN 38889 9:30am-10:45am, TTh; Oliver Hall 4068 Section 002: CRN 38890 11:00am-12:15pm, TTh; Life Sciences Bldg 0154 Instructor: Ken Akiba (Starke House 301, 915 W. Franklin St.; kakiba@vcu.edu Office Hours: Appointments only) Course Description PHIL 222: Logic. 3 Hours. In-person. Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. An evaluation of deductive arguments utilizing the methods of symbolic logic. Formal (or ‘symbolic’ or ‘mathematical’) logic is the mathematical study of reasoning, inference, and argument. This course introduces you to formal logic. After introducing the concepts of argument and valid argument, we study two kinds of formal logic, propositional logic and its extension, predicate (or quantificational) logic. Throughout the course, practical applications of logic to everyday situations and philosophy are emphasized. In this course the students will obtain:  Understanding of the concept of logical consequence (i.e., what logically follows from what).  Knowledge and understanding of informal and formal logic (up to ‘first-order’ logic).  Skills to form good arguments.  Skills to evaluate arguments.  Appreciation of the importance of logic in sciences, humanities, and our daily life. This course also helps a little for a preparation for various tests such as GRE and LSAT, although that’s not the course’s main goal. Textbook and Other Documents  John Nolt, Dennis Rohatyn, and Achille Varzi, Logic , 2nd edn. ( Schaum’s Outlines , McGraw-Hill, 2011).  All handouts, lecture notes, and sample questions for exams will be placed in the Files section of Canvas. The homework assignments can be seen in the Assignment section of Canvas. 1

Schedule (tentative; subject to change) Basically, we will study Chapters 1 (first half), 3, 5, and 6 of the textbook in this order. W K Dates Topic HW 1 8/22, 24 Introduction Chapter 1: Argument Structure 2 8/29, 31 Valid argument forms Chapter 3: Propositional Logic HW1 3 9/5, 7 Symbolization HW2 4 9/12, 14 Truth tables HW3 5 9/19, 21 Refutation trees HW4 6 9/26, 28 Continued. Review of HW4 7 10/3, 5 Review for Midterm Exam October 5: Midterm Exam 8 10/10, 12 Chapter 5: The Logic of Categorical Statements HW5 9 10/17, 19 Chapter 6: Predicate Logic Introduction HW6 10 10/24, 26 Symbolization (October 27; Last day to withdraw with ‘W’) HW7 11 10/31, 11/2 More symbolization HW8 12 11/9 (November 7; no class) Refutation trees 13 11/14, 16 Refutation trees continued HW9 14 11/21, 23 (Thanksgiving Break; no classes) 15 11/28, 30 Identity HW10 16 12/5, 7 Review for Final Exam December 7: Final Exam Requirements and Points Distributions  Midterm Exam (on Chapters 1 and 3) 350 points  Final Exam (on Chapters 5 and 6) 350 points  Homework and attendance 500 points  Total: 1200 points Final grades to be given:  950+ points A  750+ points B  600+ points C  450+ points D  – 449 points F 2

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