Reed College
Philosophy 201 -- Logic
Spring 2000

Mark Bedau

Office: 141 Vollum

Phone: ext. 7337

email: bedau@reed.edu

Office Hours: Monday 2:10-4:00, Thursday 2:00 - 3:00

 

Philosophy 201 (Logic) Course Reader (available in the bookstore; copies on reserve).

Course grades are assigned on the basis of a series of in-class and take-home exams, about ten exams all told. There are no make-up exams; if you miss an exam for any reason your grade on that exam is a zero. But your three lowest exam scores will be ignored when calculating your course grade. Daily homework is collected, marked, and returned, but it does not figure into your course grade.

N. B. Homework will be returned to your mail box if you put your box number on it. Otherswise, you must retrieve it at Kathy Stackhouse's office, Chem 303.

This course concerns the distinction between good and bad reasoning. We will develop a formal theory of logic and practice practical techniques for representing the logical forms that underlie reasoning and proving whether or not they are valid. If time allows, we will also cover selected topics in metalogic (e.g., can we prove whether a formal theory of logic works is correct?), philosophical logic (e.g., how does formal logic apply to things that do not exist?), and computational logic (e.g., what questions about logic can a machine settle?).

The course will cover the following topics:

1. Introduction to Logic
2. Truth-Functional Forms
3. Simple Derivations
4. Complex Derivations
5. Truth-Functional Semantics
6. Truth-Functional Metalogic: Soundness and Completeness
7. Subject-Predicate Forms, Semantics, and Derivations
8. Quantificational Forms and Semantics
9. Quantificational Derivations

• Truth, Logical Truth, Possible Truth
• Truth-Functional Forms
• Subject/Predicate Logic
• Simple Quantificatational Forms
• Multiple Quantification

We will add 25 points to the total of your exam scores if you successfully complete the following task before the Thesis Parade festivities begin:

• You produce a derivation of a theorem that is at least 50 lines long. You choose which theorem to prove; it can be any theorem you want
• Your derivation contains no mistakes whatsoever--we will stop grading at the first error, no matter how trivial
• Your derivation is your work alone
• Your don't use the front and back of a piece of paper to show your derivation--use only one side of the paper, so it's easier for us to grade
• You turn in only one derivation--just one entry in the Challenge per person

• Proofs that P

 

For Thursday, 2/3:

1. Redo the excercises on homework sheet Valid Arguments and Forms of Arguments.
2. Optional question: Does every invalid argument form have a valid argument as an instance? Explain why, or show why not.

For Tuesday, 2/8:

Exam #1, in class (the format will be just like the homework sheet "Valid Arguments and Forms of Arguments).

  

For Thursday, 2/10:

1. Read chapters 4 and 5 of the Reader.
2. Do exercises 1 (a) - (e) and 2 (a) - (e) in chapter 4.

For Tuesday, 2/15:

Do the excercises on homework sheet Truth-Functional Forms.

 

For Thursday, 2/17:

Exam #2, in class

 

For Tuesday, 2/22:

1. Read chapters 6 and 7 of the Reader.
2. Do the excercises on homework sheet Beginning Derivations.

For Thursday, 2/24:

1. Reread chapter 7 in the Reader, and do the following exercises:
   • exercise 1 (a), (b), (f), (h), (i), (j)
   • exercise 2 (c), (e), (f).
   • exercise 3.

For Tuesday, 2/29:

Exam #3, in class

Read chapter 8 of the Reader, and do the following exercises:

• exercise 2 (b), (d)
• exercise 3 (a), (b), (c), (f), (g), (i)

 

For Thursday, 3/2

1. Reread chapter 8 and read chapter 9.
2. In chapter 8 do excercise 3 (d), (e).
3. In chapter 9 do exercise 1 (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (g), (i), (j).

    

For Tuesday, 3/7

1. Reread chapters 7-9 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 9, do exercises 1 (h), (m), (r), (s), (t), (u), (x), (y).

For Thursday, 3/9 

1. Read chapter 10 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 10 do exercise 1 (a), (d), (e), (f), (h), (j), (l).
3. In chapter 10 do exercise 9 (b) and (c).

For Tuesday, 3/14

1. Read chapter 11 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 9, do exercise 1 (k).
3. In chapter 10 do exercise 1 (b) and (c).
4. In chapter 11 do exercise 1 (e), (f), (g).
5. In chapter 11 do exercise 2 (e), (g), (h), and (j).
6. In chapter 11 do exercise 4.

 For Thursday, 3/16 

1. Read chapters 11-13 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 12 do exercise 4 (a), (c), (f), (i), (j).
3. In chapter 13 do exercise 4 (a), (c), (g).
4. In chapter 13 do exercise 5 (c), (e), (f).
5. In chapter 13 do exercise 6 (b) and (d).
6. In chapter 13 do exercise 7 (b) and (d).
7. In chapter 13 do exercise 8 (c) and (d).

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Spring Break

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For Tuesday, 3/28

1. Read chapters 14-16 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 14 do exercise 2 (b) and (c).
3. In chapter 15 do exercise 2 (c), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j), and exercise 3 (c).
4. In chapter 16 do exercise 3 (all) and exercise 5 (all).

 

For Thursday, 3/30

Exam #6 (take home) due at noon; turn in your exam to Kathy Stackhouse (in Chemistry 303).

 

For Tuesday, 4/4

1. Read chapter 17 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 17 do exercises 2, 3, and 5.
3. Exam #7 (take home) due at the start of class. 

For Thursday, 4/6

1. Read chapters 18 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 18 do exercises 1 (all), 2 (all), and 5 (b), 5 (d), and 5 (f). 

For Tuesday, 4/11

1. Read chapter 19 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 19 do exercise 1.

 For Thursday, 4/13

1. Read chapter 19 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 19 do exercises 2, 3, and 4.
3. Answer the questions on the "Semantical Assignments" class Handout.

For Tuesday, 4/18

Exam #9 (take home) due at noon; turn in your exam to Kathy Stackhouse (in Chemistry 303).

 

 For Thursday, 4/20

1. Read chapters 20-22 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 20 do exercise 3.
3. In chapter 21, do exercise 1.
4. In chapter 22, do exercise 1.

For Tuesday, 4/25

1. Reread chapters 21 and 22 in the Reader.
2. In chapter 21 do exercise 2.
3. In chapter 22 do exercises 2 and 3.
4. The rules universal generalization ("I) and existential instantiation ($E) include a number of provisos. For example, you may use "I to infer a universal generalization from a given line containing an individual constant only provided that the individual constant you are replacing with a universally quantified variable does not occur in any of the suppositions of the given line. Show that if any of these provisos were violated, then it would be possible to use those quantifier rules to make an invalid inference.

 For Thursday, 4/27

Last class: no homework.

Exam #12 should be turned in to Kathy Stackhouse (in Chemistry 303) before the Thesis Parade festivities start (Friday, 4/28, 3 p.m.)!