UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH :: PHIL08004
course summary. This course is an introduction to what is known as formal or symbolic logic, requiring no prior knowledge of philosophy or mathematics. Logic is the science of reasoning—the systematic study of the principles of good and bad reasoning, and has been a central and foundational part of philosophy, stretching back over 2000 years to the earliest investigations of logic in Ancient Greece. Logic is both an historically important area of philosophy and an indispensable tool used in philosophy. Understanding philosophical texts without any knowledge of basic logic is typically very difficult and a general grasp of the meaning of various key concepts is absolutely essential if one is to evaluate the strength of a philosophical position or philosophical claim. Virtually every area of philosophy—be it ethics, metaphysics, or epistemology—relies extensively on concepts from logic. The aim of this course is not to communicate results about logical systems per se but instead to impart a skill—the ability to recognize and construct correct derivations and countermodels. We will proceed via a graduated but unified development of logic from the basics of the sentential logic up to predicate logic. Along the way we will take short diversions into the historical issues that led to various developments (e.g. the insights of Aristotle, the Stoics, Leibniz, Frege, Jaskowski, and Tarski, among others).
lecturer: Dr. Brian Rabern
info:
secretary: philinfo@ed.ac.uk
course text: An Exposition of Symbolic Logic, Terrence Parsons
assessment:
- 20%: Weekly Homework Assignments
- 80%: Final Test
- Fridays, 12:00-4:00pm
Virtual logic labs (links via Learn)
All content and information for this course including the lecture recording, tutorials, and homework exersices are accessbile from the LEARN page for this course.
Week 1 [ homework ]
- What is logic? [Parsons 0: 5-13]
- Formal languages and systems [Hunter, "Formal languages": 4-13]
- System MIU [Hofstadter: "The MU-puzzle"; Homework: MU playground]
Week 2 [ homework ]
- L1 (The language of `if' and `not') [Parsons 1: 1-6; syntax playground]
- Symbolisations [Parsons 1: 7-10] [A note on 'if' and 'only if']
- Inference rules [Parsons 1: 11-12]
Week 3 [ homework ]
- Introduction to derivations [Parsons 1: 13-18]
- Direct, Conditional, and Indirect Derivations [Parsons 1: 18-30]
- Sub-derivations [Parsons 1: 30-44]
Week 4 [ homework ]
- L2 (The language of `if', `not', `and', `or', `iff') [Parsons 2: 1-11]
- Inference rules [Parsons 2: 12-14]
- Derivation strategies [Parsons 2: 15-18]
Week 5 [ homework; study guide ]
- Box and cancel [Parsons 2: 19-21]
- Using derived rules [Parsons 2: 25-33]
- Midterm Test (practice)
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No classes -- February 15-19, 2021
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Week 6 [ homework ]
- Truth tables [Parsons 2: 34; Wittgenstein's TLP]
- Truth table analysis [Parsons 2: 34-37]
- Validity and countermodels [Parsons 2: 37-39]
Week 7 [ homework ] [syntax playground for L3]
- Introduction to quantifiers [Parsons 3: 1-3]
- Names, variables, and predicates [Peters & Westerståhl][Dummett, Chapter 2]
- L3 symbolisations [Parsons 3: 3-7]
Week 8 [ homework ]
- Quantifier inference rules [Parsons 3: 8-19]
- Derivations with quantifiers [Parsons 3: 19-24]
- More derivations [Parsons 3: 25-28]
Week 9 [ homework ]
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- Quantifier negation rules Parsons 3: 28-39]
- Models [Parsons 3: 40-42]
- Invalidity and countermodels [Parsons 3: 42-44]
Week 10 [ homework ]
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Countermodels [Parsons 3: 45-47]
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Derivations and models [Parsons 3: 48]
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Beyond monadic [Parsons 4, L4 exersices]
Week 11
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Review and conclude
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Logic 1 Final Test
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