Professor Judy Pelham
pelham@yorku.ca to reach Prof. Pelham

Virtual office hours: Professor Pelham will hold an office hour online via Zoom once per week.  Other appointments may be made by emailing her directly. I will announce the details of my office hours shortly before the first week of classes.  

Logic is the study of argument and proof, and it is basic to philosophy as well as many other disciplines.  This course attempts to teach you to recognize three important concepts that you will use in philosophy and in a lot of other academic work: deductive, validity, equivalence, and consistency.

Here is an example of a deductively valid argument:
Either the Liberals will win, or the Communist Party of Canada will win.
The Liberals will not win.
Therefore, the Communist Part of Canada will win.

This argument is valid because of its structure, not because of the truth of its premises or its conclusion.  The course will teach you to distinguish validity of an argument from the truth of its conclusion.  In this and other ways its goal to make you a better reader and a better debater.

Technical requirements for taking the course:

You must be able to watch and hear pre-recorded lectures via the internet, and to regularly access the course website on eClass for quizzes. EClass is York’s Moodle-based course platform. You will be required to take quizzes in eClass on a weekly basis. In person tutorials and tests are part of this course as well.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

Zoom@YorkU Best Practices 

Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide

Computing for Students Website

Student Guide to eLearning at York University

To determine Internet connection and speed, there are online tests, such as Speedtest, that can be run.]

Times and locations:

The lectures for this course will be posted on the course website, and quizzes will be held online. Weekly tutorials will be held in person on Wednesdays, select a tutorial section as part of your registration, tutorial participation is a required part of the course. 

Course Kit containing sections from The Logic Book, 2^nd Ed.

Tutorial Homework (in person & prepared) & participation: 15%

Weekly Quizzes (online only): 15%

SL Test (in person):  25%

SD Test (in person): 20%

Final Exam (on PL, in person): 25%

This course combines online lectures and quizzes, with in-person tutorials and tests. In this way it is a truly blended course. Each week of the course is devoted to a certain amount of material and skill building. Students watch pre-recorded lectures online in their own time, and complete a weekly quiz on that week’s material online.  Students also have a one hour in-person tutorial at a specific time on Wednesdays on campus. and place each week. Because logic involves right and wrong answers a large component of the grade will be in-person tests. These tests are taken roughly one month apart and focus on problem solving that is practiced in tutorial sessions. The lecture topics, quiz & test dates and more details will be announced in an online syllabus available just before the first day of classes.

1. To recognize the logical structure of sentences in English. To make this very clear we translate the logical words of English  (e.g. “and”) into symbols, and practice doing such translations.
2. To recognize the logical structure of deductive arguments in English, and to be able to recognize the validity of an argument as well as be able to construct a counter example to prove that it is logically invalid.  We also discuss when two sentences are logically equivalent, and when two sentences are inconsistent.
3. To be able to construct proofs that demonstrate the logical validity of English arguments.

Additional Information:

Course policies of Pelham for Phil 2100

Tests

Tests are an inevitable part of the assessment of your logical ability.  And it is important for fairness that all students write the tests or exams at (approximately) the same time. But, people do become sick, and other unavoidable problems do arise.  Do not attempt to write a test or exam if you ill.  You will not perform well, and you may contribute to spreading illness. You may write a make-up if I approve your excuse. If a student misses a logic test, they should notify me (pelham at yorku) by email as soon as possible and no later than 72 hours after the test.  I will attempt to provide some remedy.

Final Exam

Similar considerations apply to the final exam, I may attempt to allow you to write a replacement exam during the exam period If you are ill or absent for the entire exam period,  you must petition for deferred standing via the Faculty of LAPS.

Homework/Attendance at Tutorial

If your tutorial leader assigns you homework, or you miss a tutorial, these may not be made up despite illness or any other reason for absence. Any homework assignments are structured so that each student is allowed to miss one or two tutorials in the course of the term. Attending the tutorials is an important part of the course, and if you do not attend, you forfeit the attendance part of the grade. For other questions consult your teaching assistant.

Grading

Your teaching assistant is also the person who grades your work, and they work as a team, with me, to ensure fair and reasonable grading for all the students.  If you have a question about why a certain question is awarded a certain grade, those questions are to be directed to your teaching assistant.  Tests and assignments are normally returned within about two weeks of a test, and you are encouraged to discuss your grade with your teaching assistant. I discuss the assignment of grades with individual students if and only if you have discussed the matter with your TA and you are unhappy with the result.  I do not promise to raise your grade, I may indeed lower it.