Insights will be evaluated and grasped when appropriate, but the need for critical thinking, creativity, and open-mindedness will be stressed as well. This course is designed to acquaint students with some of the principal issues in philosophy. We shall be reading and examining the arguments of philosophers on such topics as what is morally right and what is morally wrong, the nature of society and the political order, whether or not God exists, the nature and limits of human knowledge, and the problem of personal identity. An introduction to central problems in philosophy through the study of both contemporary and classic readings. The course is primarily concerned with the analysis of simple argument forms in natural language.
Close attention is paid to the different uses of language in an argumentative context.
There is a treatment of elementary principles of inductive logic, decision making, syllogistic reasoning, and informal fallacies. Philosophy 304 is recommended for science students. Written homework exercises and periodic exams. The course is designed to teach students to generate deductively valid arguments and to detect invalid arguments. Correct inference rules for sentential arguments and quantificational arguments are identified and treated from a purely syntactical point of view.