Course Syllabus
PHIL 4145, Philosophy of Logic
Independent Study
3 Credit Hours

Course Learning Resources:

Questia Subscription (Questia.com) Questia is an online library of over 400,000 downloadable resources, including books, journals and periodical articles. Subscriptions are available on a monthly or quarterly basis, and will replace the purchase of individual textbooks for this course.

Note: Questia's inventory includes several Principles of Logic textbooks and related resources. They will be used in the completion of this course's assignments.

Course Description
This course provides an overview of traditional Western logic and its forms. Key topics include propositional logic, deduction and induction, logical fallacies, rules of argumentation and the scientific method.

Course Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Be familiar with the concepts and practices of traditional Western logic;
2. Be familiar with propositional logic;
3. Be able to recognize informal and conversational fallacies in logic;
4. Have been exposed to the use of logic in rhetoric and rhetorical exchange;
5. Be familiar with techniques for evaluating arguments based on their logical structure;
6.) Be able to recognize proper and improper uses of evidence, analysis, and opinion in argumentation.

Course Policies

Attendance
This is a 90 day independent study course, and is designed to be primarily self-paced. Its requirements include assignments and tests that you will complete and submit via the Internet.

I will maintain email and Internet contact and will be available to answer questions, engage in discussion and provide assistance as needed.

Your assignments should be submitted as file attachments in MS Word, RTF (rich text format) pdf or HTML format. Each assignment will be evaluated, graded, and returned with feedback. Values for each assignment and test are provided in a table below.

Timing
Please be sure to time your assignments so that you have adequate time to complete the work in 90 days. Course tests are sent to you after you complete specific assignments, so be sure to give yourself enough space to pace the work comfortably.

Communication
As an independent study course, this is more a one-on-one exercise than a scheduled class might be. However, discussion is still important. Please feel free to use my email address for questions, comments, concerns, etc. and I will do the same. We do have the option to add a discussion forum should we need one.

Evaluation Material

Assignments and Tests
There are 5 major assignments, a final paper and an optional final exam.

Grade Components

Individual assignments: 15% each (75% of total)
Final paper: 15% of total
Final Exam: 10% of total (if necessary; percentages will be adjusted if unnecessary)

Grading Scale

How to Take This Course

Assignments are posted on the Assignments page. Before you start working on assignments, please email me and introduce yourself. I would like to know a little about you, your motivation for taking this course, and what you hope to gain by taking it. Once I receive your note, I'll send one back.

After that, to get started, just visit the Assignments page and begin.