LOGIC, REASONING, & PERSUASION
FALL 2025

WEEK NINE (Week of October 27, 2025)

• Handout 9-1.
• Midterm Solutions
• Read: Odds and Ends, Chapter 2. Some of the chapter will be review from the first half of class; other concepts will be new. Recall that "validity" is what we called "truth-preservation." What the chapter calls "propositions" is what we've been calling "statements."
• Read: Odds and Ends, Chapter 3. Concentrate on the basic concept in each subsection. It is okay if you don't follow the more complicated parts.

• Handout 9-2
• Writing Assignment Part 2 released. See document for details and due date.

WEEK EIGHT (Week of October 20, 2025)

• MIDTERM ONE, 5:45-7:00 (exam designed to be taken in 1 hour or less.)

• Handout 8-2.
• Before Class, watch this video: Bayes theorem, the geometry of changing beliefs carefully, re-watching if you need to.
• Optionally, watch these two videos:
• The quick proof of Bayes Theorem
• "The medical test paradox, and redesigning Bayes' rule"

WEEK SEVEN (Week of October 13, 2025)

• Review Problem Set

• Practice Midterm. See handouts above in "Exams" section for practice midterm and solutions! The actual midterm will be this same format. Writing Assignment Part 1 Due.

WEEK SIX (Week of October 6, 2025)

• Review Problem Set, More Informal Argument Mapping
• Reading: Nozick, "The Experience Machine"

• Grades Posted. PSET 1 Solutions Posted.

WEEK FIVE (Week of September 29, 2025)

• Topic: Beyond Truth-Preservation -- Informal Argument Mapping
• Handout: LRP Handout 5-1

• Topic: The Varieties of Support
• Handout: LRP Handout 5-2
• Writing Assignment Part 1 Assigned, Due Wednesday Oct 15: Writing Assignment Part 1. Example Submission for Writing Assignment Part 1, with further expanation: Writing Assignment Part 1 with Example

WEEK FOUR (Week of September 22, 2025)

• 3:00pm-5:00pm, Wed Sep 24. In Person, Philosophy Department, 527.
• 7:30pm-9:00pm, Wed Sep 24. In Person, Philosophy Department, 527, and on zoom.
• 10:00am-12:00pm, Fri Sep 26, on zoom.

• Topic: Even More Truth-Preservation: Review and Translation.
• Read before class: Handout 4-1

• Topic: The Gluestick Machine, Normative Logic Machines, The Aylsworth and Castro Argument.

WEEK THREE (Week of September 15, 2025)

• Topic: Truth-Preservation
• Re-read before class: Aylsworth and Castro, §2 (all of it)
• Handout for Class: Handout.

• Topic: More Truth-Preservation
• No new reading, but review Handout

WEEK TWO

• Topic: Aylsworth and Castro, "Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Papers?"
• Read before class: Aylsworth and Castro (but you can read it badly)
• Handout for Class: Week 2-1 Handout.

• Topic: Premises, Conclusions, Positions, and Arguments.
• Read before class: Aylsworth and Castro
  • re-read §1 "Introduction" and §2.1, "No, because it would be cheating", including the footnotes. You don't have to read §2 before §2.1 (most of pages 3-4).
  • Handout for Class: Week 2-2 Handout.
  • Answers to Exit Quiz (note: the order might not have been the same on your sheet):
    • "48 Products that might just make you the happiest traveler on the globe": Not a statement. This is just a very long noun.
    • "Can I guess your favorite Taylor Swift album based ONLY on your ideal fall day?" : Not a statement. This is a question. If we made it "I can guess your favorite Taylor Swift album based ONLY on your ideal fall day," this would be a statement.
    • "An 87-year-old New Yorker outwitted a scammer, and the Internet is absolutely obsessed": Is a statement.
    • "Anthony Bourdain's hiiiighly specific Trump critique is going viral again": Is a statement.

WEEK ONE

• Topic: Introduction to the course!
• Pre-reading: syllabus.
• Get ahead: read (or begin reading): Aylsworth and Castro.