Lecturer in Philosophy
Introduction to Logic
Key information
- Start date
- End date
- Year of study
- Year 1 or Year 2
- Duration
- Term 1
- Module code
- 158000193
- FHEQ Level
- 5
- Credits
- 15
- Department
- Department of Religions and Philosophies
Module overview
This module is designed as a stimulating introduction to the basic concepts of formal logic and to various methods of argument analysis and evaluation.
The objective of the module is to equip students with the necessary intellectual tools to understand and engage critically with philosophical texts, as well as to write and reason in an ordered and rigorous way. You will learn about rudimentary logical concepts such as inference, deduction and induction, validity, and soundness, and apply such knowledge in your engagement with a range of philosophical texts produced in the Global North and in the Global South.
You will also learn about a range of formal and informal fallacies, and develop the skills to identify when these are committed by authors. This will be done through the analysis of not only published philosophy texts, but also in the analysis of tabloid editorials, broadsheet editorials, and party-political speeches. Extensive in-class exercises focusing on argument construction, reconstruction, truth-tables, and truth-trees are designed to enhance a range of academic skills that will build your confidence in applying the methods in a wide variety of circumstances.
Objectives and learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course a student will be able to:
- Define technical concepts in deductive and inductive logic
- Identify a range of fallacies (formal and informal)
- Use the truth-table method to make sense of compound formal sentences that contain logical connectives
- Use the truth-tree method to make sense of compound formal sentences that contain logical connectives
- Critically reflect on learning about techniques in formal logic for establishing the truth-conditions of sentences and for establishing a range of logical properties (such as validity and truth-functional consistency)
Scope and syllabus
| Week | Syllabus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Validity, Soundness, and Inductive Force |
| 2 | Formal fallacies |
| 3 | Informal fallacies |
| 4 | Truth-tables: Conjunction and Disjunction |
| 5 | Truth-tables: Material Implication, Biconditionals, Tautology, Contradiction, Indeterminacy, and Consistency |
| 6 | Reading Week |
| 7 | Truth-tables: Testing for Validity |
| 8 | Truth-trees: Conjunction and Disjunction |
| 9 | Truth-trees: Material Implication and Biconditional |
| 10 | Truth-trees: Testing for Validity |
| 11 | Workshop |
Workload
- 3-hours lecture per week
Method of assessment
- One essay of 1,000 words OR a video essay or multimedia presentation (5 minutes, 5 pages/slides)- (30%)
- One portfolio including longer essay of 2000 words, 10 minutes, 7 - 10 pages/slides (70%)
Suggested reading
- Bergmann, M., Moor, J., and Nelson, J. 2013. The Logic Book (6th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill
Convenor
Disclaimer
Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules.
