Philosophy Department

Office hours:
Tuesdays and Fridays 9:30 - 11:00 am, and by appointment
(Subject to change-any necessary changes will be announced in class.)

Required text:
Copi, Irving M. and Carl Cohen. Introduction to Logic. Tenth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

You will be responsible for knowledge of the material in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 12 of the textbook, as well as any other topics covered in class.

Course goals:
This course will introduce you to philosophy through the study of logic. By the end of the course, you will have working knowledge of the basic vocabulary and methods of logic. You will be able to identify arguments in texts. You will be able to express arguments in logical notation (using the predicate calculus), and you will be able to evaluate arguments for validity.

Required work:
* Attend and participate in class meetings
* Read assignments from the text before each class meeting
* Complete a series of brief, unannounced in-class quizzes
* One midterm exam to be given during fifth week
* One final exam to be given during the exam period
* Two brief written assignments analyzing an argument from a non-philosophy source that you find

Grading:
Your grade will depend equally on four factors: the midterm exam, the final exam, the unannounced quizzes, and the two written assignments. The frequency and quality of your class participation can also affect your final grade for the course, especially if your average for the course falls between two grades. The quizzes will consist of short questions such as definitions and true/false. Quizzes will not be announced, and there will be no make-up quizzes. Quiz grades will be on a percentage basis. Students who must miss quizzes because of true emergencies, illness or religious holidays are required to notify me in advance. Students with excused absences will have their quiz grades computed as a percentage of a lower number of points, depending on how many points were on the quizzes missed. Quizzes missed with no excused absence will receive no credit. Instructions and deadlines for the short written assignments will be distributed in class. For these assignments and the exams, there will be no extensions granted after the deadline. Late assignments or failure to attend the exams without prior agreement with the instructor will result in a grade of F.