PHI12

INTRODUCTION TO SYMBOLIC LOGIC

Course Description

This course considers the theoretical elements of formal or symbolic logic. The focus of this course is not on sharpening critical and evaluative skills of everyday discourse; instead, we look at logic as an area of study in, and of, itself. We consider truth-functional logic (TFL)– the branch of symbolic logic that takes sentences as the fundamental unit of logical analysis. Once we grasp the key notions of logic (Section I of the course text), we will learn how to logically symbolize sentences and the logical connections between them (Section II of the course text), given these symbolizations, we then make use of two logical methods to give an analysis of our logical notions: truth-tables (Section III of the course text) and derivations (Section IV of the course text).

The class lectures (in contrast to the TA sections) are intended to explain the logical concepts of formal logic and so will focus more on the theoretical side of the material rather than on its applications. There are, however, many exercises found in the course text (and solutions to selected exercises are on Canvas)– it is the student’s responsibility to work through these exercises. Any questions of a conceptual nature will be taken up in class lectures and those related to the applications of these concepts are to be brought to the TA Sections. Attendance for both lectures and TA Sections is, therefore, essential.

The overall aim of this course is to achieve a conceptual understanding of the formal notions and procedures of symbolic deductive logic. Consequently, a majority of the questions on assignments and tests will be theoretical in nature.

Carnap.io

• All assignments and exams must be completed and submitted using Carnap.io.

• You must create an account on Carnap.io. For this you will need the “course enrollment link” it is: https://carnap.io/enroll/UC%20Davis%20PHI012%20Fall%202024

Grading Scale

90 - 100 = A+   78 - 80 = B+    68 - 70 = C+    58 - 60 = D+

85 - 89 = A       75 - 77 = B       65 - 67 = C      55 - 57 = D

81 - 84 = A-      71 - 74 = B-     61 - 64 = C-     50 – 54 = D-    < 50 = F