Logic Course Proposal

This page is a proposal for a home school Introduction to Logic class for the Nashua, New Hampshire area to be provided in the Fall of 2000. The class would be physical (at our home) and virtual (support over the internet) and would teach logic (propositional and predicate) and argumention. This subject is typically taught in colleges and universities as a philosophy course though it is taught in some secondary schools too.

The class will be taught using materials in:

Mathematical Logic for the Schools by Patrick Suppes and Shirley Hill,
Introduction to Logic by Patrick Suppes,
Discrete Mathematics and its Applications by Kenneth Rosen,
The Elements of Artificial Intelligence by Steven Tanimoto,
Introduction to Logic by Irving Copi, and,
Programming in Prolog by Clocksin and Mellish.

The first text was aimed at fifth-graders while the other books have been/are used at the undergraduate level.

What is logic?

Logic is the study of the methods and principles used to determine correct and incorrect reasoning in an objective way.

Why study logic?

Students often have to present arguments in written or oral form for classes and it is desirable to make these arguments correctly.
Students may have to critique the arguments or ideas of others and this is simplified with knowledge of the tools of reasoning.
There are times when things that are counter-intuitive or that go against how we feel are correct. The ability to objectively reason can help us to make better decisions or to evalulate correctly despite how we subjectively feel.
Formal Languages and proof techniques are used in Computer Science and Information Technology courses and their associated careers.
Correct analysis, presentation and justification are needed in modern business careers.

Syllabus (under construction)

Introduction
Propositional Logic
1. Boolean Expressions
2. Symbolizing Sentences
3. Compound Sentences
4. Rules of Inference
  1. Proofs
  2. Modus Ponendo Ponens
  3. Disjunctive Syllogism
  4. Resolution
  5. Double Negation
  6. Modus Tollendo Tollens
  7. Adjunction
  8. Simplification
  9. Modus Tollendo Ponens
  10. Chain rule (transitivity, hypothetical syllogism)
  11. Disjunctive Simplification
  12. Commutative Laws
  13. DeMorgan's Laws
  14. Law for Biconditional Sentences
Predicate calculus
1. Terms
2. Predicates
3. Quantifiers
  1. Universal
  2. Existential
4. Converting expressions to clause form
5. Scoping
6. Resolution
7. Examples of logic programming in Prolog
Fallacies in Argumentation
1. Fallacies of Relevance
  1. Argument from Ignorance (Argument ad Ignorantiam)
  2. Appeal to Inappropriate Authority (Argument ad Verecundiam)
  3. Complex Question
  4. Argument ad Hominem
    1. Abusive
    2. Circumstantial
  5. Accident and Converse Accident
  6. False Cause
  7. Begging the Question (Petitio Principii)
  8. Appeals to Emotion (ad Populum), to Pity (ad Misericordiam), and to Force (ad Baculum)
  9. Irrelevant Conclusion (Ignoratio Elenchi)
2. Fallacies of Ambiguity
  1. Equivocation
  2. Amphiboly
  3. Accent
  4. Composition
  5. Division
3. Other Fallacies
  1. Affirmation of the consequent
  2. Anecdotal evidence
  3. Argumentum ad antiquitatem
  4. Argumentum ad crumenam
  5. Argumentum ad lazarum
  6. Argumentum ad logicam
  7. Argumentum ad nauseam
  8. Argumentum ad numerum
  9. Bifurcation
  10. Converting a conditional
  11. Denial of the antecedent
  12. Appeal to Nature
  13. Shifting the burden of proof
  14. The slippery slope argument
  15. Straw man
  16. Tu quoque

System Requirements

Any system that can support Netscape 4.0 or later or Internet Explorer 4.0 or later with system support for the symbol and cmsy5fonts. I believe that the symbol font is supplied with Windows. All of the html pages will be simple html so a high-performance system isn't a requirement.

To load True-type fonts onto your Windows machine, go to the Lycos FTP search page and search for symbol.ttf and then cmsy5.ttf. Download one of the choices to the font subdirectory under your Windows directory. To get an idea of the symbols available in symbol.ttf and cmsy5.ttf, click here.

A printer capable of printing the documents here, and, of course, an Internet connection.

This page is maintained by Michael Moy mmoy@yahoo.com

and was updated on January 24, 2000