This course is about the most common and the only unstoppable human
activity: thinking. One can stop drinking, eating, mating, even
breathing (at least for a while), but one can never stop thinking.
If you do not believe me, go ahead and try not to think for 10
seconds. It is impossible, isn’t it?

Since this activity is that special among other mental activities,
we better excel at it. Yes, this is the GOAL of this course: to
excel at thinking and reasoning. Logic is the key for that goal. In
this course, we will try to understand logic underlying everyday
informal reasoning. Within the course of our journey, we will see
that we need some formal tools. We will cover some of the formal
tools for excellence in thinking and reasoning. At the end of the
semester, (I hope) you will have better skills about identifying
arguments, testing the validity of arguments and some formal tools
for these purposes.

The only required text is the set of notes that will be available at
Collegiate copies. All the other possible readings will be made
available on e-reserve.

Your performance will be graded on the basis of two midterms, one
final exam and regular homeworks and quizzes.