Instructor: Brad Skow.
Class Meetings: Thursdays, 2-5, 8th floor seminar room.
Description: A basic overview of (1) sentential logic, predicate logic, basic metalogic, tense logic, modal logic, and the logic of conditionals, (2) the theory of probability, and (3) the formalism of quantum mechanics.
Prerequisite: It would be good if you have taken one course in logic.
Requirements: Final exam and final paper, each worth 50% of your grade. There will be weekly homework assignments. Doing them is essential to understanding the material. Your grade on them will not affect your final grade for the class, but you must submit every homework assignment in order to pass. The paper should be at least 10 pages and should in some way make use of something you learned in this class. I'll give a separate optional exam at the end of the semester for those who want to satisfy the logic requirement (note: this is pending logic committee approval).
Course Structure: I ask that you make a try at understanding the formal material before the relevant class meeting, and make note of where you get stuck or confused; we will use class time either going over the broad outlines the material, or focusing on parts that you have told me you had trouble with.
I also expect that some difficulties you encounter can be dealt with out of class, in various online forums that I will explain on the first day.
Below is an order of topics. We will not move through the material at a pre-determined pace. It will probably take a miracle for us to get through it all. I will try to update this page every week, indicating what we did when, and what we will be doing at the next meeting.
I have ordered copies of Sider's Logic for Philosophy at the COOP. Information about how to obtain other readings will be distributed in class.
Before the first class: baby set theory; propositional logic background.
Read Sider ch 1, up to p. 17; ch 2, up through 2.4.
Take the pre-term test.
Homework due by the evening of Sept 3rd: exercises 2.1 (first line only), 2.2(b). (Type up your answers and email me; or email me saying "I don't know how to do these.")
Sept 4: Propositional Logic: axioms; soundness; completeness.
Sider 2.6 to end of 2.
Sept 11: PL metatheory continued [NOTE UNUSUAL TIME: 1:35 TO 3:30].
Sider 2.6 to end of 2 (for real this time).
Do the homework, due by email by Wednesday night.
Tell me by email which parts of the reading confused you, which parts you didn't get at all.
Note! Class will meet from 1:35 to 3:30 this week.
Check in with the course blog (you should have received instructions by email).
Sept 18: Non-Classical Logic; Indeterminacy; Supervaluationism.
Sider 3.3, 3.4.
Williamson excerpt.
Homework, due by email on TUESDAY night:
part 1: Sider ex. 3.5; 3.7; 3.10(d); 3.10(e); 3.12; 3.13.
part 2:Tell me which parts of the reading you had most trouble with.
(Note that this is part of the homework, so you can't get credit for the homework if you don't do it.)
Sept 25: Review of Predicate Logic.
Sider 4.
Mendelsohn excerpt. (Read just enough to do the homework; and then make a try at 2.7. You may ignore all discussion of function symbols.)
Homework 4, due by email tuesday night.
Oct 1: PC soundness, completeness; extensions.
Review Mendelsohn 2.7.
Sider 5.1, 5.3 (ignore discussion of function symbols), 5.4.1, 5.4.2.
Homework: Sider exercises 5.5(c), 5.8, 5.9.
Oct 9: A brush with formal semantics.
Heim and Kratzer, Semantics in Generative Grammar, chs 1, 2, 4.2, 5.1-5.4 (skim 5.3 and 5.4), 6.1-6.3, 7.1, 7.3, 7.4.
Homework: p31, ex1; p39, ex1; p40, ex4; p63, exercise; p95, exercise; p112, exercise. Handwritten answers okay this week (but still scan then and email them to me by tuesday night).
(I suspect this material will take us more than one week.)
Oct 16: (philosophy of) formal semantics.
Heim and Kratzer, 5.1-5.4 (from last week).
Stanley, "Context and Logical Form."
English grammar seance session.
(no homework.)
Oct 23: no class.
Oct 30: Propositional Modal Logic: Semantics; Natural Deduction Rules; Axioms; Soudness; Completeness.
Sider 6.
Konyndyk, excerpt.
Homework: Konyndyk, 2.3.c A (1-4); 2.3.g A (1-3); 2.4.b B (1,3,5); 2.5.b A (2,4,7); Sider ex. 6.3 (a,b,c); 6.14 (S4 and S5 only); 6.15; 6.18 (just do the case for S4); 6.20. Handwritten answers okay.
Nov 6: Tense Logic (plus polish notation!).
Sider 7.3.
Prior, excerpt from Past, Present and Future; our focus will be on ch 7.
You may also want to read Sider's section on polish notation. Your "homework" is to translate all of the formulas into standard logic "infix" notation (you do not need to hand anything in).
Nov 13: Counterfactual Conditionals.
Sider 8.
Stalnaker, Inquiry, 132-146.
Homework, due tuesday night by email: Sider 8.2; 8.3; 8.5.
Nov 20: Indicative Conditionals.
Stalnaker, "Indicative Conditionals."
Kratzer, "Conditionals."
Dec 4: Quantum Mechanics in 10 seconds.
Axler, Linear Algebra Done Right, ch1, ch2, ch6 sects 1-3.