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Logic and Practical Reasoning LIBS 7008

Liberal Studies Course

Course details

This course emphasizes that people are responsible for the rationality of their opinions, in all areas of their lives. To that end, the course teaches methods for analysing and evaluating both ordinary and famous arguments, as found in everyday life, politics, religion, science, technology, and (even) philosophy.

Prerequisite(s)

  • BCIT ENGL 1177, or 6 credits BCIT Communication at 1100-level or above, or 3 credits of a university/college first-year social science or humanities course.

Credits

3.0

Cost

$667.34 - $722.36 See individual course offerings below for actual costs.

Course offerings

Spring/Summer 2023

Below are two offerings of LIBS 7008 for the Spring/Summer 2023 term.

CRN 63491

Duration

Mon May 22 - Fri Aug 11 (12 weeks)

  • 12 weeks
  • CRN 63491
  • $667.34
Class meeting times
Dates Days Times Locations
May 22 - Aug 11 N/A N/A Online
Instructor

Mazen Guirguis

Course outline

View

Cost

$667.34

Important information
  1. Internet delivery format.
  2. *(A)* This is NOT a SELF-PACED course. There will be specific timelines for assignments and exams. Course content, kind and quality of assignments and general standards for this online course are the same as classroom courses. You will have discussions and assignments to complete each week (although you do NOT have to be online at a particular time or day). *(B)* FINAL EXAMS: Your instructor will provide further information regarding format and date of all exams.
Status

In Progress and Full

This course offering is in progress and full. Please check this page for other currently available offerings or subscribe to receive email updates.

CRN 63620

Duration

Mon May 22 - Fri Aug 11 (12 weeks)

  • 12 weeks
  • CRN 63620
  • $667.34
Class meeting times
Dates Days Times Locations
May 22 - Aug 11 N/A N/A Online
Instructor

Mazen Guirguis

Course outline

View

Cost

$667.34

Important information
  1. Internet delivery format.
  2. *(A)* This is NOT a SELF-PACED course. There will be specific timelines for assignments and exams. Course content, kind and quality of assignments and general standards for this online course are the same as classroom courses. You will have discussions and assignments to complete each week (although you do NOT have to be online at a particular time or day). *(B)* FINAL EXAMS: Your instructor will provide further information regarding format and date of all exams.
Status

In Progress

This course offering is in progress. Please check this page for other currently available offerings or subscribe to receive email updates.

Fall 2023

Below are two offerings of LIBS 7008 for the Fall 2023 term.

CRN 38598

Duration

Tue Sep 05 - Fri Dec 15 (15 weeks)

  • 15 weeks
  • CRN 38598
  • $722.36
Class meeting times
Dates Days Times Locations
Sep 05 - Dec 15 N/A N/A Online
Dec 12 Tue 18:30 - 21:30 Burnaby
Instructor

TBD

Course outline

Course outline TBD — see Learning Outcomes in the interim.

Cost

$722.36

Important information
  1. *(A)* This is NOT a SELF-PACED course. There will be specific timelines for assignments and exams. Course content, kind and quality of assignments and general standards for this online course are the same as classroom courses. You will have discussions and assignments to complete each week (although you do NOT have to be online at a particular time or day). *(B)* FINAL EXAMS: Final exams will be held IN-PERSON on the Burnaby campus in the last week of the course. If you live outside the Lower Mainland area you will be required to have an approved proctor administer the exam. You are directly responsible for any invigilation fees and related costs.
Status

CRN 43578

Duration

Tue Sep 05 - Fri Dec 15 (15 weeks)

  • 15 weeks
  • CRN 43578
  • $722.36
Class meeting times
Dates Days Times Locations
Sep 05 - Dec 15 N/A N/A Online
Dec 14 Thu 18:30 - 21:30 Burnaby
Instructor

TBD

Course outline

Course outline TBD — see Learning Outcomes in the interim.

Cost

$722.36

Important information
  1. *(A)* This is NOT a SELF-PACED course. There will be specific timelines for assignments and exams. Course content, kind and quality of assignments and general standards for this online course are the same as classroom courses. You will have discussions and assignments to complete each week (although you do NOT have to be online at a particular time or day). *(B)* FINAL EXAMS: Final exams will be held IN-PERSON on the Burnaby campus in the last week of the course. If you live outside the Lower Mainland area you will be required to have an approved proctor administer the exam. You are directly responsible for any invigilation fees and related costs.
Status

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Recognize and understand the role of the linguistic elements of arguments.
    • Understand the conversational rules that govern conversational acts.
    • See how conversational implication affects the meaning of speech acts.
    • Recognize the standard form of an argument and understand the concepts of validity, truth and soundness.
    • See that good arguments must not beg the question.
    • Understand why successful arguments depend on finding common ground.
    • Understand the role of assuring, guarding, and discounting expressions, as well as "argumentative performatives".
    • Recognize the role of evaluative language and its use and misuse in argument (persuasive definitions, euphemisms and figurative language).
  • Understand the many uses of arguments.
    • Distinguish 'impersonal normative' from 'dialectical' justification .
    • Distinguish proper attempts at refutation (parallel reasoning, reductios) from illegitimate ones (straw man).
    • Recognize the role of argument in systematization and simplification of belief systems.
    • Understand the role of argument in giving explanations and in providing excuses.
  • Apply learned skills in a 'close analysis' of a moderately complicated argument.
  • Reconstruct arguments according to a standard pattern.
    • See how to remove logically irrelevant material from an argumentative passage.
    • Clarify terms and break down arguments into individual claims.
    • Arrange subarguments in logical order.
    • Recognize that 'real life' arguments usually depend on 'suppressed' premises, and that, when acceptable, these premises often involve shared facts, 'analytic truths' and moral principles.
    • Tease out hidden premises that embody controversial assumptions.
    • Apply the 'method of reconstruction' to some extended arguments.
    • Realize that all arguments terminate in fundamental principles, which may be part of competing frameworks.
  • See the value of formal propositional logic in explaining and demonstrating some kinds of validity.
    • Recognize occurrences of logical conjunction, disjunction and negation.
    • Recognize the argument pattern of disjunctive syllogism.
    • Understand the role of truth-functional connectives in propositional logic.
    • Testing for validity using truth tables.
    • Distinguish indicative conditionals from subjunctive conditionals; give the truth table for indicative conditionals; and recognize some valid and invalid argument patterns involving conditionals (modus ponens, modus tollens, and hypothetical syllogism).
    • Translating some everyday language sentences using truth-functional connectives.
  • See how formal logic can determine validity in categorical arguments.
    • Represent categorical claims with Venn diagrams.
    • Recognize basic categorical form (i.e., A, E, I and O) propositions and represent them in Venn diagrams.
    • Translate everyday language claims into basic categorical form.
    • Recognize which categorical claims are contradictories (and contraries) of others.
    • See that 'particular' categorical claims have 'existential commitment'.
    • Recognize which categorical claims are immediate inferences from others.
    • Recognize categorical syllogisms and use Venn diagrams to evaluate them for validity.
  • See how various inductive styles of reasoning can produce strong arguments.
    • Recognize the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning standards.
    • See how inference to the best explanation works.
    • Recognize, use and evaluate arguments from analogy and distinguish them from inference to the best explanation.
    • Appreciate and evaluate causal reasoning, in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions and 'Mill's methods'.
    • Use inductive generalization to argue from samples to larger populations.
    • Recognize some biased samples.
    • Use and evaluate statistical syllogisms.
  • Understand and evaluate some arguments involving probability (if time permits).
    • See how the representative and availability heuristics can cause logical 'blunders'.
    • Grasp the notion of a priori probability.
    • Understand and use some probability laws (addition, multiplication and conditional probability).
    • Recognize and apply Bayes's Theorem.
    • Understand expected monetary and overall value.
    • Understand some principles of decision under uncertainty.
    • Recognize and avoid the Gambler's Fallacy.
    • See how regression to the mean can affect the relevance of exceptional events.
    • Recognize that 'strange things happen' all the time.

Effective as of Fall 2004

Related Programs

Logic and Practical Reasoning (LIBS 7008) is offered as a part of the following programs:

School of Business + Media

  1. Accounting
    Bachelor of Accounting Full-time/Part-time
  2. Bachelor of Business Administration
    Bachelor of Business Administration Full-time/Part-time

School of Construction and the Environment

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    Associate Certificate Part-time
  2. Residential Interiors
    Diploma Part-time

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