This is our catalog of courses. We will occasionally adjust the course listing to reflect the addition of new courses and the retirement of others.
Join this college-preparatory course for an in-depth treatment of syllogistic logic. In this course you will acquire indispensable tools for analyzing arguments, honing your verbal reasoning abilities, and learning how to express your ideas with clarity and precision. This course is of general interest to anyone pursuing studies in the sciences or the humanities.
Total classes: 12
Duration: 55 minutes per class
Prerequisite: None. It is beneficial for you to have taken “Reasoning and Rhetoric” with Dr. Nicholson (available as a recorded course through Unlimited Access) but this is not necessary to understand the material presented here.
Suggested grade level: 9th to 12th grade
Suggested credit: One full semester Formal Logic or Philosophy
Description
This course will acquaint students with the classical theory of the syllogism, as initially discovered by Aristotle and developed up to the present day. We will learn about the rules of inference, the square of opposition, immediate inferences, the valid forms of reasoning, and the construction of extended chains of reasoning or “sorites”.
Outline
Week 1 – Topic: Introduction, Classes and Terms; Read: Chapter 5, section 5.1.
Week 2 – Topic: Categorical Propositions; Read: Chapter 5, sections 5.2 – 5.3
Week 3 – Topic: Quantity and Quality; Read: Chapter 5, sections 5.4 – 5.5; First quiz
Week 4 – Topic: The Square of Opposition; Read: Chapter 5, section 5.6
Week 5 – Topic: Existential Fallacies and Boolean Modifications; Read: Chapter 5, section 5.7
Week 6 – Topic: Categorical Syllogisms; Read: Chapter 6, sections 6.1 – 6.2; Second quiz
Week 7 – Topic: Venn Diagrams; Read: Chapter 6, sections 6.3 – 6.4
Week 8 – Topic: Valid Inferences and Syllogistic Fallacies; Read: Chapter 6, section 6.5
Week 9 – Topic: Syllogistic Arguments; Read: Chapter 7, section 7.1
Week 10 – Topic: Terms and Conversion to Standard Form; Read: Chapter 7, sections 7.3 – 7.5; Midterm
Week 11 – Topic: Sorites; Read: Chapter 7, section 7.6
Week 12 – Topic: Sorites (continued); Read: Chapter 7, sections 7.6 -7.7; Third Quiz; Final Exam
Materials and Homework
Course materials: Our course text is Copi and Cohen’s famous Introduction to Logic, 14th edition. ISBN-10: 0205820379, ISBN-13 978-0205820375 (https://amzn.to/3lh9nL8) or BookFinder.com). It is permissible to use other versions of this textbook, but please be aware that there may be minor differences in pagination and material. For this reason, assignments are indicated by chapter and section numbers rather than page numbers.
Homework: There will be three quizzes, a mid-term examination, and a cumulative final exam. These will make up 45%, 25%, and 25% of your grade, respectively. The remaining 5% of your grade will be assigned on the basis of attendance and participation.
