Logic lecture 5

This evening we practiced some syllogisms and went over the rules, and then took the second test. Those that needed more time took them home to work on some more. There was no quiz question since there was a test in class. The remaining portion of the evening we began looking at symbolic logic. No video of class this evening! I did not bring the camera with me. But just going over syllogisms would be a great way to cover what we did in class. Remember also that next week is the July 4th holiday so we do not have class Monday evening. THe syllogisms for test 2 are: 1. EAO-3 2. OAO-2 3. IOO-1 4. AAA-2 5. EIO-4 6. EAO-2 7. EEA-3 8. OIO-2 9. AII-1 10. AAA-1 For each expand them using S, M, and P for the terms, give a Venn diagram, determine if it is valid or invalid, and if it is invalid give the rules broken.

Logic Lecture 4

In class this evening we finished up chapter 5 in the first half and started syllogisms in the second half. So for today the first quiz question is if the A statement "All cowboy hats are smaller than Mexican Sombreros" is true, what would be the truth value of the three other statements on the Traditional Square of Opposition? The second quiz question is, is the syllogism OOO-4 valid or invalid?

Logic Third Class summer session

Tonight we cover Fallacies - and following several studies will treat them as similar to jokes, though clearly not all fallacies are jokes. But the comparison is helpful. Notice Daniel Dennett's treatment of them in his book Inside Jokes. I will play his TED talk as well. So the first quiz question for the first half is do you agree with this comparison of humor to fallacious reasoning? For the second half of the evening we begin covering the Aristotelian system beginning with standard form propositions. If we can we might go on to do some syllogisms. So the quiz question for the second portion is determine if the syllogism EIO-2 is valid or not and give an example.

Logic second class summer session

This evening was our second meeting for Introduction to Logic for the summer session. We covered the chapters up to the beginning of chapter 4 which begins the topic of fallacies. There were two quiz questions. The first was to discuss how objective or subjective you think this article is. The second quiz question is for you to select your favorite comedian and post a link to one of his or her skits on youtube and analyse what sort of fallacy seems to be the pattern the comedian uses in their jokes. For example Eddie Izzard who I think uses amphiboly a lot.

Logic Summer session first meeting

So our Logic course for the summer started this evening with a four hour session. Since it was four hours I asked two quiz questions. The first quiz question was what are the ten commandments. The second quiz question was what did you think of the Ontological argument? There are also videos of the two halves of this evening. First lecture and second lecture. Remember next week we have off because of the holiday. See you in two weeks.

Finals week

So far my Logic class met and we watched Ex Machina and had a great discussion about AI. My Early Modern Philosophy class met and we watched Irrational Man and argued over the ending of the movie. My Afternoon Introduction to Philosophy class voted to watch The Life of Brian which we followed up by watching some of the discussion between John Cleese, Malcolm Muggeridge, Michael Palin, and the Bishop. Wednesday I spent the day in my office downtown grading. Thursday the same - but this evening my evening Introduction to Philosophy will pick a movie to watch and discuss. We shall see which one. Meanwhile, I have been voted this year to deliver the speech at Graduation. To make it interesting I plan to post it on my web site and seek input from the students. I shall post the web page on Facebook to share it around. Details to follow....

Friday evening Ancient and Medieval Philosophy last class before Final

So for our Friday evening Ancient and Medieval Philosophy last class before Final we covered most of the rest of the book to finish up including a few odds and ends along with it - such as who Charles Sanders Peirce was....rather than a quiz question I asked if you have any comments on how to improve the course. Also for our final session note that we will watch a movie decided by those that come next Friday evening. Attendance is optional. But I will be there and watch a movie of relevance to the course and discuss it. Thank you to all who took the course!