PHIL 120

Course Description

Logic is a core area of philosophy, and it has applications in mathematics, computer science, informatics and linguistics too.  This course is a first introduction to formal logic.  You will be able to learn some of the fundamental concepts of logic such as first-order languages, truth values, logical consequence, logical validity, etc.  We will use some mathematical tools to talk about a first-order language and its interpretation.  To ensure that the course is fully accessible and self-contained, we will quickly review some elementary notions, for instance, sets and cartesian products.  A way to prove that an inference is logically correct is to give a proof in what is called a proof system.  For the latter, we will use tableaux, which are probably the easiest proof system to learn and use.  (Tableaux have other advantages for metalogic, which we will not go into in this course.  Suffice it to say that they are closely related to special sequent calculi.)  Last but not least, we will also look at simple English sentences and formalize them in a first-order language to precisely delineate their logical content.  

[This course has no prerequisite.  The current plan is that the course will have recorded lectures made available to you and some (live) zoom sessions on Mondays or Wednesdays.]