@goldencub Yeah, I’m in the same boat: I also got a B in intermediate algebra. Let’s hope it doesn’t count!
Thanks for the offer. The first test is what kicked my ass and put me back. I didn’t do the proofs enough. I drastically improved on the truth tables test, but still fell short of an A on that (I’ll find out why on Monday. My suspicions are indirect truth tables. I totally forgot to practice those).
Working nearly full-time and taking 18 units can make one forgetful at times :-/. It doesn’t help that I work at 2am on Saturdays and Sundays. Really messes up my sleep schedule. My symbolic logic course is on Monday evenings. But hey, everyone has excuses. The entire class is solely based on your performance on five tests (four tests worth 50 pts each and a comprehensive final worth 100 pts).
Environmental Ethics is unfortunately nearly indistinguishable from ethics. It does go far more in depth, though.
@Cheolf Oh, I love them. Are you using first-order logic yet? No, right?
I remember writing a ~40 line proof on one of my logic exams. It was fun as hell. I had to work some reductio existential-elimination neg imp black magic. Or something like that. The best way to study for proofs is to do loads of them. I miss logic :((
Yeah, I didn’t do the proofs and we just jumped right into them. It was a humbling experience. Logic is fun once you get the hang of it. As my professor says, “Do all the proofs. After that, do them all again”.
Fairly prevalent in the technical branches of philosophy, e.g. philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and definitely philosophy of math. There are, of course, upper-division logic courses in the department, e.g. metalogic(I kid you not, this is basically the logic of “logic”), modal logic, and upper-division symbolic logic. Not very commonly used in ethics or history of philosophy classes, unless such history of philosophy classes cover Leibniz or 20th century philosophy.
Also, my philosophy of language professor wrote this on the board and expected us to know this, as we should:
∃x∃y( x ≠ y ^ Fx ^ Fy ^ ∀z (Fz --> z= x ^ z= y)
Translated, it means this: “There’s an X and a Y such that they are distinct and not identical with each other. All x’s are F’s, all Y’s are F’s, and if there’s a Z that is an F, then it’s identical with x and identical with y.”
In the context of the discussion, this statement was used to show that you could write this sentence in logic form: “Professor Kaplan has two children.” Seriously.
It’s worth noting, by the way, that certain classes will have symbolic logic as a prerequisite. Again, the technical philosophy courses, e.g. science, math, language, and so on.
Okay, symbolic logic is really starting to make me question my aptitude! I’ve spent hours and hours studying and I only seem to improve marginally. I’ve seen better gains in math under such conditions! Right now we’re using the 18 rules of inference. I really wish I was used to thinking multiple steps ahead!
This class is driving me crazy. I’m taking 18 units but this one class is what takes up my time. If I can’t cut it at this level I fail to see how I could at the next.
@cheolf You have to do a ton of deductions (first of all), and look at a ton of completed proofs (your textbook should have some hard ones).
I recommend trying proofs under timed conditions. One of my classmates last summer mentioned spending 5 hours on a Sunday studying deductions - I couldn’t imagine doing that much logic. It’s really not necessary IMO. Try to figure out what you aren’t getting, and work to understand it.
Hi everyone just found this forum! It’s nice to meet other Philosophy majors online!!
My stats:
Overall GPA: 3.45
Major GPA: 4.00
TAG: UCSB for Psychology
IGETC (Complete/Incomplete): Complete by end of Spring 2016
Community College: Cypress College
Personal statements: 7-8/10 I wrote about how I grew up not being enough of an american for the community around me & just finding/accepting myself through my culture and name.
Extracurriculars & Honors/Awards: Psychology Club president, worked on an independent study with the chair of the philosophy department, Honors Program, Puente Program, Honors Club, & seasonal macy’s worker.
Accepted: SFSU, UCI, UCSB, UCLA, CSUF, Chapman University
@Cayton If you don’t mind me asking your opinion on this but do you think my admissions from UCLA will be taken away if I drop one of my major req courses? :-/
Does anyone know whether philosophy is harder at Cal or UCLA? I have looked at some posts, on College Confidential, concerning the difficulty of philosophy courses at Cal, and the general opinion seems to be that they are extremely difficult.
@alexismariah Nearly all of them. Nearly every college in the US will focus on analytic philosophy. I think UCLA’s department is slightly more analytic than Berkeley’s, though.
UCSD has admitted me by appeal to its Philosophy program!
Still waiting on UCSB/UCLA/Cal. Very excited.
I had previously unreported transferable units so my earlier application was not actually reviewed.
