Discipline: Philosophy / Humanities
Course Description: Logic is the philosophical study of reasoning, argumentation, inference, validity, and the principles by which conclusions follow—or fail to follow—from premises.
This course introduces students to both traditional and contemporary approaches to logical reasoning. Students learn to determine whether their conclusion is actually supported by its premises. The course moves from basic argument analysis into deductive and inductive reasoning, informal fallacies, symbolic logic, and finally the practical use of logic in contemporary life. Students will apply logical reasoning to:
- Everyday arguments
- Advertising
- Politics
- Religion
- Ethics
- Social media
- Scientific claims
- News reporting
- Academic writing
- Professional decision-making
Course Learning Outcomes: By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Define logic and distinguish arguments from nonarguments.
- Identify premises and conclusions.
- Distinguish deductive from inductive reasoning.
- Evaluate arguments for validity, soundness, strength, and cogency.
- Construct logically coherent arguments.
- Identify common formal and informal fallacies.
- Translate simple arguments into symbolic notation.
- Construct and interpret truth tables.
- Recognize ambiguity, equivocation, and hidden assumptions.
- Apply logical reasoning to real-world problems.
- Distinguish logical validity from rhetorical persuasiveness.
- Develop habits of disciplined and intellectually responsible reasoning.
Assessment Structure
| Component | Weight |
| Participation & Discussion | 20% |
| Five Journal Reflections | 20% |
| Creative Arts Responses | 20% |
| Logic Exercises & Argument Analysis | 15% |
| Final Critical Reasoning Project | 25% |
| Total | 100% |
Final Critical Reasoning Project
Students select a real-world argument and conduct a complete philosophical analysis.
Possible Subjects
- Political argument
- Religious argument
- Scientific controversy
- Advertisement
- Social media controversy
- Ethical argument
- Artificial intelligence claim
- Health claim
- Environmental argument
- Workplace policy
- Relationship conflict
Students must:
- Identify the central conclusion.
- Identify the premises.
- Identify explicit and implicit assumptions.
- Determine whether the argument is deductive or inductive.
- Evaluate validity or inductive strength.
- Identify any fallacies.
- Evaluate the quality of the evidence.
- Construct the strongest possible counterargument.
- Respond to the counterargument.
- Provide a final assessment.
Optional Final Creative Project
The Great Philosophical Debate: Students choose a controversial proposition such as:
“Artificial intelligence will improve humanity.”
“Free speech should have no restrictions.”
“Religion is necessary for morality.”
“Social media does more harm than good.”
“Humans have free will.”
Each must construct:
- A thesis
- Three premises
- Supporting evidence
- A counterargument
- A rebuttal
- A concluding argument
The students then give their assignment to a different person who then evaluates the quality of the reasoning, rather than which side they personally support.
Additional Creative Option
The Logical Fallacy Deck: Students create a 22-card Logical Fallacy Deck modeled loosely on an archetypal or tarot structure.
Possible cards include:
- The Ad Hominem
- The Straw Man
- The False Dilemma
- The Slippery Slope
- The Bandwagon
- The Appeal to Authority
- The Appeal to Ignorance
- The Circular Argument
- The Red Herring
- The Hasty Generalization
- The Equivocation
- The False Cause
- The Loaded Question
- The Appeal to Emotion
- The No True Scotsman
- The Tu Quoque
- The Genetic Fallacy
- The Composition Fallacy
- The Division Fallacy
- The Moving Goalposts
- The Anecdotal Fallacy
- The Sound Argument
Each card should include: Name → Definition → Symbol → Example → Why It Fails → Corrective Strategy