Doug McFerran 

• email: dmcf34@yahoo.com
• office hours are in Beh 1306 M-Th from 9:30-10:30
  
• phone: 818-364-7710

Course description:

With symbolic logic we learn how to take factual statements and represent them in such a way that we may develop deductively valid arguments. We also learn how to test arguments for validity and how to demonstrate step by step that a particular conclusion follows from a set of premises

Expected student learning outcomes:

By the end of the course you should be able to

You should also be able to

Something you should know:

While this course is typically required for philosophy majors and also for computer science majors, please remember that it does not satisfy the critical reasoning requirement for the UC campuses and so is not part of the IGETC program.  It does satisfy the critical reasoning requirement for graduation at Pierce and it also satisfies the critical reasoning requirement for the Cal State campuses.  Make sure to look carefully at your catalog, and ask a counselor if you are in doubt.

Text:  The material for the course is available online.  It is divided into three sections.  Each chapter includes some brief exercises with answer keys, and there are several review pages. 

Additional resources worth purchasing (available through Amazon.com as well as your local bookstores) are Logic for Dummies by Mark Zegarelli and the Quickstudy guide for logic.   (There will be some differences between the Zegarelli book and what we do in this course, but it may still prove very useful.)

In the summer session I will be going over the content indicated in the chapters for that day on the schedule.   You need not print out the chapters, but I do encourage you to review them online. 

Each chapter presents an explanation and examples for one of the things you need to be able to work with.  There is then a brief set of exercises with an answer key available (to get the full benefit you should attempt these exercises on your own and not just skip to the answer key).  On the page with the answer key there is a banner link to a form that will let you ask me about anything you may not see clearly (the same banner link you see above). 

Grading:

A=90, B=80, C=70, D=60

Each student begins the semester with 50 points.  Each day of unexcused absence or partial attendance will reduce that by a point.  The final exam, worth 50 points, will consist of ten short arguments to be symbolized and shown valid through a derivation or shown invalid through one of the techniques presented in the course.