Philosophy 112

Welcome Back!

Welcome back everybody! This webpage is your master guide the remaining six weeks of PHI 112, the holy shit hastily thrown together online edition.

Table of Contents

I talk here and in the syllabus about “modules”. This is the page you should come to for the modules. You can also find them on the Carnap.io assignments page, but that is an organizational mess.

Schedule

We have six weeks left—seven if you count Finals Week. Here is what I think you should be doing each week:

Week of March 23st
Get oriented to the new version of the course, and start working through the Sentential Logic modules, reviewing old material and completing the associated quizzes.
Week of March 30th
Finish any remaining Sentential Logic quizzes, and start working on Monadic Predicate Logic. Try to get through the module on syntax.
Week of April 6th
Complete the modules on Monadic Predicate Logic translation.
Week of April 13th
Focus on derivations in Monadic Predicate Logic.
Week of April 20th
Keep working on derivations.
Week of April 27th
Practice!
Week of May 4th (“Finals Week”)
Complete any quizzes that remain undone. Go back and improve your quiz score by taking alternate versions. Improve your homework grade by completing more homework exercises.

You will note that this schedule has been modified. My original schedule was too ambitious. I have cut the section on Polyadic Predicate Logic from the course. I have cut the section on countermodels from the course.

Syllabus Amendments Module

The first module I want you to work through describes the amendments to the syllabus, and includes a video of me talking through the changes. It also includes a quiz, and, as you will discover when you read the amended syllabus, quizzes are now an important source of points that affect your grade.

Drop in Virtual Office Hours

I will be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9:30-12:30, for virtual “office hours”. During this time, you can join my recurring Zoom Meetings. I will also try to keep an eye on the ReggieNet Forums and my email, so you can ask questions there in near real time.

Sentential Logic

Our original plan was to have a midterm covering everything we’ve learning in the second third of the course. Instead, you will be completing several quizzes that together cover that same material.

This is review, not new material. If you want an overview of what we have done to this point, week by week, take a look at the schedule. Note that I’ve added links to schedule to each assignment that was assigned, and I’ve added links to PDF copies of the in-class handouts. If you just want the handouts, here they are:

(Note that there never was a “handout 8”: that was a mistake in my personal numbering scheme.)

I’ve also prepared review modules to help you review for those quizzes. Note that the modules also contain homework problems, so offer you an opportunity to improve your homework score as you review. Of course, if you feel confident in your grasp of the material and do not need extra homework points, you are welcome to jump straight to the associated quizzes.

Sentential Logic Modules

Predicate Logic

INCOMPLETE. The rest of the class is still under construction. Expect broken links.

Up to this point, we have been studying Sentential Logic, which is also known as Propositional Logic and Truth-Functional Logic. The rest of the course covers Predicate Logic, which is also known as Quantificational Logic, or, more precisely, First-Order Quantificational Logic.

This is new material, not review, so let me explain how it is meant to work.

Material is introduced in modules. Each module contains written explanations, video walk-throughs, and homework problems. And then there are quizzes.

I would encourage you to work through each module in order. But you don’t have to: if you would like to learn the syntax, and then jump to derivations, before returning to symbolization, you can. In our face-to-face class, you had plenty of time to practice, after the introduction of a new topic, before being tested on it. Online, when you take the quizzes is up to you. You can complete a module and take the quiz immediately. Or you can complete a module and put off taking the quiz, giving yourself more time to absorb the material and practice. If you do this, you should also move on the next module, so you don’t fall behind. Also, all the topics are related, and learning about one can often help you better understand another, so moving on the next module might help you master the material from earlier modules.

Monadic Predicate Logic Modules

Polyadic Predicate Logic Modules

I have cut these from the course. I under-estimated how much time it would take for me to create all these modules, and it was a stretch to try to pack this in regardless. (Even in my face-to-face classes, we often don’t make it very far into Polyadic Predicate Logic.)