Phil 2321  •  Fall 2007
Logic II

Course Description

There are many logics (theories of valid reasoning). This course will provide an intermediate grounding in PL and QL (classical propositional logic and classical quantifier logic); it will examine some of the fundamental assumptions of classical logic (bivalence, truth-functionality, formalizability); and it will attend to the power and limitations of logic (the soundness, completeness, incompleteness, and undecidability theorems).

 

Students will learn, through lectures and practice, how to translate into formal logic and how to apply semantic, syntactic, and meta-logical methods to evaluating the validity of arguments.

 

Required Textbooks

John Nolt & alia. Schaum's Outline of Logic, 2/e. McGraw-Hill, 1998.
Dale Jacquette, ed. A Companion to Philosophical Logic. Blackwell, 2002/2006.

Grading and Policies

Because the material in this course proceeds cumulatively, it is especially critical that you attend regularly and keep up with the work. Make-ups for exams will be permitted only in the most dire and documented cases. For undergraduates: there will be six exams. They will contribute to your final grade as follows: 15%, 15%, 15%, 15%, 20%, 20%. For grad students: same exams as for undergrads, plus a classroom presentation; see me.

Schedule

Date	Topic	Reading	Notes
Week of  Aug 21	Introduction	Nolt ch 1, 2
Week of  Aug 28	PL Tables	Nolt ch 3.1-3.6	Test 1 Thurs
Week of  Sept 4	Functional Completeness	Jacquette ch 3
Week of  Sept 11	PL Trees	Nolt ch 3.7
Week of  Sept 18	PL Trees; Intuitionism	Jacquette ch 33, 32	Test 2 Thurs
Week of  Sept 25	PL Proofs	Nolt ch 4
Week of  Oct 2	PL Proofs	Nolt ch 4
Week of  Oct 9	Multi-valued Logics	Jacquette ch 10	Test 3 Thurs
Week of  Oct 16	Set Theory	Nolt ch 6
Week of  Oct 23	QL Translations	Nolt ch 6
Week of  Oct 30	QL Translations	Jacquette ch 40, 4	Test 4 Thurs
Week of  Nov 6	QL Trees	Nolt ch 7
Week of  Nov 13	QL Proofs	Nolt ch 11
Week of  Nov 20	Formal Arithmetic	Nolt ch 11	No class Thurs.
Week of  Nov 27	Decidability; Godel	Jacquette ch 24	Test 5 Tues
Dec 11, 2-5:00			Final Exam

Syllabus subject to change.
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