Instructor Information:

Jordan Dopkins (pronunciation)
he/him/his
jdopkins@ucsc.edu
Office hours: TBD and by appointment. (zoom link)

Teaching Assistant Information:

Philip Groth
pgroth@ucsc.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 1:30-2:30, zoom
Discussion Sections:
01B Tuesday @1pm and 01F Wednesday @3pm

Alyssa Maples
armaples@ucsc.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11am-12, zoom
Discussion Sections:
01C Thursday @11am and 01D Thursday @ 1pm

LSS Tutor:
Nitya Jain
njain14@ucsc.edu
SGT Session:
Monday @ 4pm, Wednesday @120pm, and Friday @3pm

Course Description:

The course is an introduction to symbolic logic. We’ll go over two formal logic systems and the ways you can use them to evaluate sentences and arguments for important logical properties. We’ll cover sentential logic and predicate logic, including formal deduction, semantics, and translation from natural to symbolic languages for each system

Learning Outcomes:

The principle learning outcome is for students to develop a ‘tool-kit’ they can use to think and write logically. The tools of formal logic will help you to understand the logical structure of sentences and arguments and the importance of logical properties like tautology, consistency, and validity.

The class is designed so that students have ample opportunities to practice the necessary skills for developing these tools and succeeding in the course. By the end of the course, students will have practiced:

• Talking about logic and the ways it can be used.
• Translating ordinary language sentences and arguments into the formal languages of categorical logic, propositional logic, and predicate logic.
• Checking sentences and arguments for logical properties like tautology, consistency, and validity and explaining why they have those properties.
• Choosing derivation strategies like reductio ad absurdum or conditional proofs.
• Explaining the contributions from the philosophy of language and philosophy of mind that led and depend on the development of our logical tools.
• Applying their formal logic to philosophical writing (in non-logic areas).

The tool-kits are transferable to other philosophical courses, course in other majors, and to careers outside of philosophy. The teaching team will draw connections to ideas in other philosophy courses and careers outside of philosophy (especially in programming or writing). We will also invite you to think of connections to other ideas in your major.

Books:

There is one book you have to buy for the course. Merrie Bergmann, James Moor, and Jack Nelson: The Logic Book (6th Edition). (Available at the Bay Tree Bookstore ). A cheaper soft-bound edition and an e-book rental are also available. The 5th Edition of The Logic Book is also acceptable and can be found used on a number of sites like Gettextbooks.com and Bookfinder.com . If you really cannot afford a copy, please email me: jdopkins@ucsc.edu

You can use an earlier version of the book, but if you choose to do that, you will need to refer to the 6th edition exercises here when doing the problem sets. Here is Chapter 1 of The Logic Book 6th edition for you to read while your copy of the textbook is on order.

Videos:

All of the lectures are recorded and posted in the modules on the Canvas course website. You’ll hear two different voices in the lectures. That’s because some of the lectures were recorded by our course narrator, philosophy Professor John Bowin. The others are recordings of review sessions (you can also attend those live! LINK)., or short mini lectures recorded by me.

There are ‘quiz questions’ embedded in most of the videos. The quizzes are not graded, but you should do your best on them anyway! Think of them the same way you think about a teacher asking a question to the class.

Discord:

I’ll create a Discord for the course. Nothing official will get communicated here, but it is a good place to touch base with classmates and instructors. Here’s a quick guide on how to use discord. LINK. I’ll use Discord for livechat during the Review Sessions on Thursdays.

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