| Course Description |
Reasoning is the process of using the evidence available to us in order to make informed decisions about what to believe and do. Good reasoning requires the ability to identify and assess deductive arguments; to formulate hypotheses, test them, and choose those that are best supported by the evidence; and to assess which courses of action are most reasonable given our beliefs and values. This class will introduce a number of tools that are useful for reasoning, including deductive logic, probability and statistics, and decision theory. The course will also consider problem-solving techniques and ways of evaluating the credibility of sources.
The course may be of interest to several groups of students: (1) Pre-law students who hope to improve their reasoning skills. Since this course is broader in scope than Symbolic Logic I, it may be a better choice for pre-law students. (2) Philosophy majors who would like a gentle introduction to logic before taking Symbolic Logic I. (3) Anyone who would like to develop a greater facility at evaluating rival claims, whether everyday, scientific, or philosophical.
| Text |
Ronald N. Giere et al., Understanding Scientific Reasoning, Fifth Edition (Belmont, CA: Thomson, 2006)
| Office Hours |
TR 8:30-10:30; MW 4:00 - 5:00.
I am usually in my office during office hours, but occasionally a meeting or another commitment prevents this. If you just drop by during office hours, you will probably find me in; if you want to see me at another time, or if you want to be certain I'll be in, we can set up an appointment.
| Requirements |
Exams
There will be two in-class examinations, each worth 25% of the final grade, and a cumulative final examination, also worth 25%. The in-class exams are tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, October 8, and Wednesday, November 12. The final exam is scheduled for Thursday, December 18, at 8:30 AM.
Homework
There will be regular short assignments of various kinds, including problem sets and short papers. The main purposes of the short assignments are (1) to develop practical skills in the construction, analysis, and criticism of arguments by encouraging you to practice those skills, and (2) to clarify theoretical ideas by seeing how they apply in practice. Short assignments will be worth a total of 25% of the final grade.
| Schedule |
I will post detailed information about the schedule on the TLEARN site https://tlearn.trinity.edu/login/index.php) for the class as the semester proceeds. (This link takes you to the logon page for TLEARN. Use your Trinity username and password to log onto the site; then this class should appear in the list of your TLEARN classes at the left of the screen. Let me know if it's not there!)
| The Honor Code |
All Trinity students are covered by the Trinity University Honor Code, which prohibits dishonesty in academic work. The Code asserts that the academic community is based on honesty and trust, and defines specific violations as well as the procedure to determine if a violation has occurred. The Code also covers the process of hearings for alleged violations and the various sanctions applied for specific violations. The Code also provides for an appeal process.
Students are required to pledge all written work that is submitted for a
grade by writing: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received any
unauthorized assistance on this work,” followed by their signature. The pledge
may be abbreviated “pledged” with a signature.
The Code is implemented by the Academic Honor Council, a student committee. If I
suspect that the Honor Code has been violated, I am required to submit an
allegation to the Honor Council, a student committee. After that, it is out of
my hands, and it is up to the Honor Council to determine whether a violation has
occurred, and if so, what the penalty should be. The Honor Code prohibits
faculty members from making their own determination, or even communicating about
the allegation with the student involved. In my experience, the Honor Council
has been as tough or tougher than I would have been on students found to have
violated the code. For more details see the
Honor Code web site.
You should be aware that I take academic integrity very seriously. Do not use any material verbatim that you did not write yourself unless you enclose it in quotation marks and give a citation to the source. (This goes for individual clauses as well as larger chunks of prose.) Do not use close paraphrases of material you did not write yourself, period. Be aware that plagiarism is easier to detect than you might think. Other actions that violate academic integrity, including turning in the same paper for more than one class, are listed in the Student Handbook. A PDF version of the handbook is online at http://www.trinity.edu/departments/res_life/media/Student_handbook.pdf (see p. 120 in the 2007-2008 version of the Handbook, which is the version this link leads to as I'm writing this but may not be by the time you read it). There's a web page listing violations of the Honor Code here (as part of the Faculty and Contract Staff Handbook).
Last update:
August 28, 2008. |