We will examine key moral writings by Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, and others. Elementary Logic . This course stresses the development of critical tools for the analysis and evaluation of arguments. Practical applications will make up a large part of the course work. The student is introduced to the basic features of symbolic logic and to some aspects of informal logic.
Attention is given to the practical importance of improving one's reasoning abilities.
Our general goal in this course is the development of the ability to see the unreasonable when it occurs and thus improve our verbal and written forms of expression. These techniques will make it easier for us to detect weaknesses in all forms of arguments, logical or ordinary. This class is designed to enable the student to systematically develop and refine techniques for effectively recognizing, analyzing and evaluating arguments in ordinary language. Homework, essay analysis, exams. Whether are not you have comparable aspirations to logical excellence, in this course we will discover the processes of valid argumentation, the differences between right reasoning and fallacious arguments, definitions, symbolic logic, deductive and inductive reasoning, with some forays into logic and science.