HOME Assignments Class Schedule Exam Results and Grades Lecture Notes Printouts You’ll Need Supplementary Exercises Syllabus	Philosophy 120A Autumn 2007 Introduction to Logic
	Description The aim of the course is to introduce you to logic as a formal system and to develop your capacity for abstract thought. We will be using a ingenious textbook-software combination that teaches elementary symbolic logic in an innovative way.  You will be introduced to a simple artificial language (First Order Logic, or FOL, for short), a language designed to make possible a clear and unambiguous representation of the logical structure of deductive reasoning. You will learn FOL through the use of several computer programs that were designed especially to enable you to write, read, and evaluate FOL sentences, as well as to construct proofs establishing deductive relationships among those sentences. You must have daily access for at least two hours to a computer (Windows or Macintosh, with an internet connection) to take this course. Most of the study and practice problems, which are crucial for learning the material, will be done on the computer; almost all of the homework assignments will be submitted electronically via the internet. There will be three lectures each week (MWF). You will also meet twice a week (TuTh) in lab sessions, which are dedicated to assisting students in mastering the problem-solving techniques covered in the reading assignments and the preceding lecture. There will be two exams (a midterm and a final) as well as twice-weekly homework assignments. (Each assignment should take between one and two hours to complete.) Most of the assignments will be submitted electronically; some will be handed in on paper. This course is suitable for nonmajors, and has no prerequisites. It meets the Qualitative and Symbolic Reasoning (Q/SR) requirement, and may be used to satisfy either the Individuals and Societies (I & S) or Natural World (NW) requirement.
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