LOGIC & CRITICAL THINKING
Course Objectives:
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To familiarize students with basic concepts of logic.
Contents:
Introduction: What is logic? Argument, premises and conclusions, deduction and
induction, truth and validity.
The Use of Language:
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Three basic functions of language.
Discourse serving Multiple Functions.
Kinds of Agreement and Disagreement
Emotively Neutral Language.
Fallacies:
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Fallacies of Relevance
Fallacies of Ambiguity
Avoiding Fallacies
Deduction:
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Disputes, Verbal disputes and Definitions.
Kinds of definitions and Revolution of disputes.
Categorical Syllogism:
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Categorical propositions and classes.
Quality Quantity and Distribution.
Symbolism and Diagram for Categorical Syllogism.
Standard-Form Categorical syllogism.
Venn-Diagram technique for Testing Syllogism.
Rules and Fallacies.
Symbolic Logic:
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The values of Special symbols.
The symbols for conjunctions, disjunction and Negation.
Conditional Statements and material implication.
Truth tables
Statement form Material Equivalence, and Logical Equivalence.
The Tree “Laws of Thought”. (Method of deduction).
Rules of inference.
Rules of replacement.
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Formal proof of validity.
Induction:
Analogy and Probable Inference:
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Argument by Analogy.
Appraising Analogical Argument.
Casual Connections:
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The meaning of “Cause”.
Mill’s Methods of Experimental Inquiry
A Brief Introduction of Science and Hypothesis:
* The value of science.
* Explanations: Scientific and Unscientific.
* Evaluating Scientific Explanation.
Required Reading:
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Copi, Irving M. Introduction to Logic, New York Macmillan.
Hurley P.G Introduction to Logic, California, Worth Publishing Co.
Lemmon E.J, Beginning Logic, India_ Polis Hachett Publishing Co.
Kearns, John T. The Principles of Deductive Logic, Albury State University of
New York Press.
 Jeffery, Riched, Formal Logic: Its Scope and Limits, N.Y McGraw Hills.