Course Syllabus

PH 106: Introduction to Logic

CSUF Spring 2011

Teacher: Dr. Gary Jason	Section: MW 10:00-11:15 am (LH-304)
Office: Humanities 230-D	email: DrGaryJJason@gmail.com
Home office: 949-492-8650	Home fax: 949-492-4531

Office Hours: MW 9:00-9:50 am; TuTh 12:00-12:50 pm; and by appointment. I am not on campus Fridays.

Website: www.profgaryjason.com This site has your grades, my policy on cheating, all class handouts, bulletins, class code of conduct, text errata, and links to other sites of use. Log on ASAP  to familiarize yourself with it. Especially important is to check out the text errata, and download the notes.

Texts:

Required:

1. Patterns of Thought, Gary Jason, Manuscript edition.

**Text available at The Little Professor bookstore, 725 North Placentia Ave, Fullerton 714-996-3133

Course Description: The aim of this course is to introduce the student to both informal and formal logic. The approximate breakdown will be 40% on informal logic (including inductive fallacies) and 60% on formal deductive logic. We will begin by defining the concept of an argument, and then learn to determine arguments in ordinary language contexts. We will then learn twenty very common mistakes in reasoning, called fallacies, before turning to developing formal logic. We will learn three formal tools for deductive logic: truth tables, natural deduction, and set theory/Venn diagrams.

Grade scale: It is department policy that all courses be graded on a +/- basis. Cutoffs:

A+	A	A-	B+	B	B-	C+	C	C	D+	D	D-
97%	94%	90%	87%	84%	80%	77%	74%	70%	67%	64%	60%

NOTE: CSUF requires a grade of “C” or higher to meet the General Education requirement for this course-a grade of “C-” (or below) will not satisfy the GE requirement.

Assessment Procedures: The student is expected to attend regularly, keep up with the reading, and do all the homework assignments. There will be two midterms and a final exam. Homework will be collected and graded, and a short writing project will be assigned. Participation: points will be given for each contribution (question, or attempted answers to problems).

Weighting:

Test #1 (Covers Chaps 1-7) 50 minutes	25%
Test #2 (Covers Chap 9) 50 minutes	25%
Final exam (Cumulative, but focuses on chaps 10,11) 1 hour.	30%
Homework + project + participation Participation points awarded as follows: 1 point for any question; 2 points for attempting to answer any question; 5 points for putting solutions to exercises on the board.	15%
Attendance Attendance will be recorded after the first week, and you will be graded on it as follows: miss 0 classes = 100%; miss one class = 95%; miss 2 classes = 85%; miss 3 classes = 75%; miss 4 classes = 65%; miss more than 4 classes = (100-10x)%.	5%

**There are no “extra credit” assignments, and no HW is accepted late. (You can fax HW to me, or drop it off at the Philosophy office and have the secretary put a date and time on it. Do NOT email it!) I give make-up exams (which are graded to higher standards) only when there is a signed doctor’s note or other proof of illness or other emergency.

**GRADES WILL BE POSTED ON MY WEBSITE: www.profgaryjason.com

** Suggestion:

We are working with a text I wrote. I tend to lecture lightly on the text, but work lots of problems. So:

Don’t attempt problems until you watch me work them first.

read the text lightly before lecture

listen to the lecture, watch me solve problems

reread the text carefully

do the homework

The HW is important because: (a) the material we cover is task- not fact- oriented; (b) the questions on exams are of the same type as HW questions.

Policy on Cheating: Any student who cheats at any time in my class will be given an “F” for the entire course, and I will turn the incident over to the Chairperson of the Department for whatever further action is required by the University. For further explanation, visit my website.

Class Conduct:

Students are expected to:

• Show up for class on time
• Leave early only when prior permission has been granted
• Talk only as part of class discussion
• Refrain from making disrespectful or harassing remarks
• Turn off all pagers, beepers, and cell phones before class. No iPods or laptops.
• You may bring coffee or other beverages, but please no food

Teacher is expected to:

• Start lecture on time
• Stop class on time
• Spare the student irrelevancies, such as his political opinions or details of  his personal life
• Encourage questions and class participation
• Keep regular office hours and be otherwise accessible
• Keep students informed on grading

Project: To fulfill the University writing requirement, and to get further practice in identifying fallacies in real-life contexts, you will find FIVE fallacies and write an essay (no more than 4 pages) explaining why they are fallacies. Good sources: political debates, speeches, interviews, ads, contracts, letters to the editor, and mailers. You must attach the original source or a copy of it to your essay. Enough of the original must be present so that I can verify that a real fallacy occurred.

Approximate Lecture Schedule:

January:

Day/Date	Topic	Reading
Monday, Jan 24	The nature of logic; the nature of statements and questions	Intro all; 1.1, 1.2
Wednesday, Jan 26 26	Finish questions, start identification of single arguments in real discourse	1.3, 1.4, 1.5; 2.1, 2.2
Monday, Jan 31	Finish id arguments, argument vs. non-argument;  uses of argument	2.3, 2.4, 2.5

February:

Day/Date	Topic	Reading
Wednesday, Feb 2	Finish arguments ; Inductive vs deductive	2.5, 2.6, 2.7
Monday, Feb 7	Fallacies of presumption	4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7
Wednesday, Feb 9	Fallacies of relevance: pooh-poohing, shifting the burden of proof, emotional appeals	5.1, 5.2, 5.3
Monday, Feb 14	More fallacies of relevance: ignoring the issue	5.4,5.5
Wednesday, Feb 16	Inductive fallacies: bad appeal to authority; false analogy; false dilemma	6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4
Monday, Feb 21	President’s Day	Campus closed
Wednesday, Feb 23	Finish inductive fallacies: hasty generalization, accident, false cause	6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8
Monday, Feb 28	Fallacies of language: equivocation, amphiboly, accent	7.1, 7.6,

March:

Day/Date	Topic	Reading
Wednesday, March 2	Finish fallacies of language; Review (7.1) with examples from real sources	7.10
Monday, March 7	MIDTERM #1 when finished with Chapter 7 and review (may not be this exact day)	n/a
Wednesday, March 9	assign project;Theory of deduction; first three connectives; truth tables; calculations	9.1, 9.2,9.3, 9.4
Monday, March 14	PROJECT DUE; iterative symbolization; conditionals; calculation	9.5, 9.6, 9.7
Wednesday, March 16	Symbolization; biconditionals; calculation; symbolization	9.8, 9.9
Monday, March 21	JASON FURLOUGH-class cancelled
Wednesday, March 23	Truth tables on arguments	9.10
Monday, March 28	Spring Break	Campus closed
Wednesday, March 30	Spring Break	Campus closed

April:

Day/Date	Topic	Reading
Monday, April 4	Tautologies, contradictions, and contingent statements; logical equivalence; the nature of validity	9.11, 9.12, 9.13
Wednesday, April 6	Review, MIDTERM # 2 when we have finished Chapter 9 and reviewed (may not be this exact day).	n/a
Monday, April 11	The limitation of mechanical methods; the nature of inference rules; the first four rules	10.1, 10.2, 10.3
Wednesday, April 13	Proofs; next five rules	10.4, 10.5
Monday, April 18	Proofs; the rule of Conditional Proof	10.6, 10.7
Wednesday, April 20	Proofs, the rule of Reductio	10.8, 10.9
Monday, April 25	Proofs; optional rules; proofs;	10.9, 10.10
Wednesday, April 27	Statements in set theory; tautologies in set theory; categorical statements	11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5

àMay:

Day/Date	Topic	Reading
Monday, May 2	Translating ordinary language into categorical statements;	11.6, 11.7
Wednesday, May 4	Using Venns to check categorical arguments	11.9
Monday, May 9	Finish Venn testing of categorical arguments	11.9
Wednesday, May 11	Review
Monday, May 18	Final Exam *12:00-1:50 pm	n/a

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POLICY ON CHEATING

My general policy on cheating can be summarized as follows:

Any student who cheats at any time in my class will be given an ”F” for the entire course, and I will turn the incident over to the Chairperson of the Department for whatever further action is required by the College or University.

Some amplifying remarks are in order. By “cheating“ I mean copying work from other students, either homework or exams, or allowing other students to copy from your homework or tests. This of course applies to the work of my past students. If you want to do homework together in study groups, let me know ahead of time, and each member should turn in the assignment separately, but note the group affiliation.

By “cheating” I also mean plagiarizing, that is, copying work from articles, essays or books you are consulting for a class essay without attributing in a footnote the source. Your footnotes should include the name of the author whose work you are quoting, the title of the work, the pages being quoted, and where it was published (journals: journal name, date, number, volume, and page numbers; books: date, publishing company and city). THIS APPLIES EQUALLY WELL TO ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET OR COMPUTER ENCYCLOPEDIAS.

By “cheating” I further include “farming out,” that is, paying someone or some service to write your essays or other work for you, or to do your research for you, either someone you directly hire, or so-called “research sites” on the internet such as Gradesaver or The Evil House of Cheat.

You can learn more about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it by visiting the two websites listed below:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
www.fullerton.edu/deanofstudents/Judicial/Plagiarism.htm

Issues of cheating are handled by JUDICIAL AFFAIRS:

Titan Student Union 235

657-278-4436

Students are expected to conduct themselves as mature and responsible members of the campus community. The Judicial Affairs officer conducts educational workshops that promote and educate students about campus expectations for academic integrity, civility, and appropriate standards of conduct. This office is responsible for coordination of the established judicial procedures if there is an allegation that university standards have been violated.

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Learning Goals:

PH 106 satisfies the following General Education requirements (full text available from: http://www.fullerton.edu/catalog/academic_programs/gened.asp):

I. CORE COMPETENCIES: Courses in Core Competencies (Oral and Written Communication and Critical

Thinking) include the following overall goals for student learning:

1. To organize one’s thoughts and communicate them clearly and effectively, using language that demonstrates sensitivity to gender and cultural differences.

2. To select and present clearly and effectively information and arguments for a variety of purposes and audiences.

3. To recognize and evaluate with rigor the features, functions and contexts of language that express and influence

meaning.

4. To compare and contrast with care and accuracy the relative merits of alternative or opposing arguments, interpretations, assumptions and cultural values.

5. To reflect in an open-minded manner on one’s own thinking in relation to the ideas of others.

6. To work effectively

C. Critical Thinking

Courses in Critical Thinking include the following goals for student learning:

1. To identify the relevant evidence and experiences needed to make a decision, solve a problem or create new knowledge.

2. To clarify the facts, concepts, evidence and relationships that contribute to addressing questions and solving problems.

3. To evaluate the quality and sufficiency of evidence and other forms of support for a position.

4. To revise arguments and findings based on critical reflection.

5. To recognize the explicit and implicit features in communication.

6. To assess accurately similarities and differences in points of view.

7. To monitor one’s own comprehension and apply various strategies to clarify one’s own thoughts and actions.

8. To be organized, persistent and focused in thinking, inquiry and communication.

These General Education goals will be met by the material covered in class. Specifically:

GE Core Competency Learning Goals: PH 106 is a course intended to help the student achieve the core competencies of General Education. By meeting the course objectives, the student will be able:

• To use the knowledge learned about the pitfalls of language to clarify the facts and concepts that are involved in answering questions and solving problems
• To use the knowledge learned about fallacies of relevance to determine what evidence and experience bears on a given problem or decision
• To use the knowledge learned about the basic forms of statements and arguments to recognize basic features of communication
• To use the knowledge learned about correct argumentation to evaluate evidence offered for any point of view and revise beliefs accordingly

*Additionally, this course helps the student achieve the GE Writing Requirements by giving the student extensive practice in analyzing passages containing argumentation and requiring the student to write analyses of them

Critical thinking learning goals: Since this is a basic survey course in logic, both informal and formal, there are no prerequisites. The material falls into three broad categories:

1.       Basic Skills: the student will learn

• What Logic is about
• To identify arguments in practice
• To distinguish arguments from non-arguments
• To distinguish inductive from deductive arguments

2.       Informal Logic: we will devote considerable time to learning to detect major errors in reasoning (informal fallacies). The student will learn:

• To detect fallacies of emotional appeal
• To detect other fallacies in which no objective evidence is offered for a point of view
• To detect fallacies of induction
• To detect fallacies of language

3.       Formal Deductive Logic: the majority of the course will be devoted to learning the rudiments of formal deductive logic. The student will learn:

• To symbolize TF statements
• To assess TF statements for necessity by truth tables
• To assess TF arguments for validity by truth tables
• To construct proofs of sentential arguments
• To use logic graphs to analyze class statements and arguments

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POLICY ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT

UPS 240.100 prohibits “conduct that has the purpose or effect of interfering with a student’s academic performance, creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive or otherwise adverse learning environment, or adversely affecting any student’s access to campus programs, services and benefits.” This policy applies to both faculty and students. Here is the relevant section:

UPS 240.100

SEXUAL HARASSMENT POLICY

I. POLICY STATEMENT

It is the policy of California State University, Fullerton and the California State University to maintain a working and learning environment free from sexual harassment of its students, employees and those who apply for student or employee status. Sexual harassment is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the

Higher Education Amendments of 1972, and the California Education Code 89535.

Executive Order 345 Prohibition of Sexual Harassment also prohibits sexual harassment within the California State University System. The University will not tolerate sexual

harassment and will take action to eliminate such behavior.

II. DEFINITION AND CONDITIONS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:

1. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment;

2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual;

3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment [Citation: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Guidelines on Sexual Harassment];

4. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with a student’s academic

performance, creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive or otherwise adverse learning environment, or adversely affecting any student’s access to campus programs, services and benefits.

III. POLICY IMPLEMENTATION AND DISSEMINATION

The President is responsible for the implementation of this policy, establishment of procedures for the resolution of complaints, and preparation of periodic status reports. All supervisors and managers are responsible for the implementation of this policy and maintaining a working and learning environment free from sexual harassment.

This policy and a listing of offices designated to receive complaints shall be widely disseminated to all members of the University community and publicized in official campus publications.

IV. GUIDELINES FOR ESTABLISHING CAMPUS PROCEDURES FOR THE RESOLUTION OF COMPLAINTS FILED UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF THIS POLICY

The procedure shall conform to the following general principles:

1. The policy and procedures shall be enforced in a manner consistent with due process protections, including the right of any individual charged with a violation to notice

and a hearing.

2. Confidentiality shall be of primary importance insofar as may be consistent with due process.

3. Informal resolution shall be the established practice for minor conflicts and disputes. Major disputes and recurring minor incidents of intentionally discriminatory behavior should be addressed through formal resolution.

4. Records shall be maintained which are adequate for statistical and policy review. Record keeping must not be inconsistent with, and must not take priority over, confidentiality and a preference for informal dispute resolution.

5. Any member of the campus community may use the procedures except as otherwise provided for under an agreement between a collective bargaining unit and the University. Faculty, staff and administrative employees should refer to the appropriate collective bargaining agreement for filing complaints of harassment,

Executive Order 419 Discrimination Complaints for Employees Not Covered by Existing Regulation or Executive Order 675 System-wide Complaint Procedure for Discrimination Complaints by Employees Not Eligible to File a Discrimination Complaint or Grievance Under a Collective Bargaining Agreement, and should contact any of these offices for assistance: Affirmative Action, Associate Vice President Academic Affairs, or Human Resources.

6. Students and employees who knowingly file fraudulent complaints under this policy and implementing procedures are subject to disciplinary action.

7. Students and employees will not be subject to retaliation for filing legitimate complaints.

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INFORMATION CONCERNING SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS PROVIDED BY DISABLED STEUDENT SERVICES

Students with disabilities who need support services should identify themselves to the instructor when convenient. If you are taking the test under special conditions, the necessary paperwork should be submitted prior to the test. Any such student can do this during my office hours or on my office phone to protect student anonymity.

For further information, consult: DISABLED STUDENT SERVICES

University Hall 101

657-278-3117 (V) 278-2408 (FAX)

The Office of Disabled Student Services provides assistance and offers support services to students with temporary and permanent disabilities. The purpose of this program is to make all of the university’s educational, cultural, social, and physical facilities and programs accessible to students with orthopedic, functional, perceptual and/or learning disabilities. The program serves as the delegated authority on campus to review documentation and prescribe specific accommodations for students with disabilities. The professional and support staff are experienced in serving the particular needs of persons with disabilities. The program works in close cooperation with other university departments in order to provide a full range of services. These services include academic accommodations (readers, note takers, ASL interpreters/RTC, alternative testing), accessible technology and instructional materials, counseling, temporary disabled person parking, application assistance and priority registration, as well as academic advisement, career counseling and job-placement, housing and transportation referral and advocacy.

The program also provides diagnostic assessment, counseling, advisement, advocacy and supportive services for students with psychological and other functional and/or learning disabilities. The  program encourages involvement and input from students, faculty and staff in order to maintain a responsive and quality program.

Information regarding programs and services available to students with permanent and temporary disabilities may be obtained from the Office of Disabled Student Services.

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INFORMATION REGARDING EMERGENCIES

Students should acquaint themselves with the Campus Emrgency Procedures plan at: http://www.fullerton.edu/emergencypreparedness/ep_students.html.

EMERGENCY CALLS DIAL 9-1-1 All campus phones and cell phones on campus reach the University Police Department Non-emergency line: (657) 278-2515 24-hour recorded emergency information line: (657) 278-0911 (657) 278-4444