Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Overview

In this course we will cover central aspects of modern formal logic, beginning with an explanation of what constitutes good reasoning. Topics will include validity and soundness of arguments, formal derivations, truth-functions, translations to and from a formal language, and truth-tables. We will thoroughly cover sentential calculus and predicate logic, including soundness and completeness results.

Texts

The required text is: Bergmann, Merrie, James Moor, and Jack Nelson. The Logic Book. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008. ISBN: 9780073535630.

There are some errors in the text; a list of corrections is provided.

• The Logic Book errata (PDF - 1.1MB)

Assignments

In addition to regular reading assignments, there will be problem sets, short quizzes, and a final exam. Problem sets will be assigned weekly on Tuesday, due the following Tuesday. Quizzes will be closed-book, closed-notes, to be completed in class. There will be 8-10 quizzes over the course of the semester, and they will not be announced in advance. Make-up quizzes will not be allowed, but your lowest two quiz scores (i.e. a zero if you miss one) will not be factored into your final grade.

Grading