Philosophy 110: Introduction to Logic
Some people, e.g. George Boole, have thought of logic as the study of the laws of thought. Others, e.g. Gottlob Frege, have thought of logic as the study of the laws of truth. We will think of logic as the general study of reasoning. Given the things that you believe, what can you safely conclude on the basis of that? More abstractly: given certain statements, or propositions, what follows logically from them? We will consider logical laws which are such that if something is true, then something else must be true too. That is, we will consider logical laws which are such that if you believe something, then these laws will tell you what you can safely conclude from that without running into error. We will also consider what you cannot safely conclude on the basis of other things you believe. If there is a kernel of truth to how Boole and Frege thought about logic, then this class will perhaps help you see some of the laws of your mind that can track the truth.
Here are some great philosophers that have thought hard about logic (Aristotle, Frege, Peirce, and Boole, respectively):
Here is another great philosopher that thought really hard about logic (Kurt Godel):
These philosophers all wondered about the laws and limits of reasoning. They asked questions about and suggested answers to the structure of rational thought. In order to think clearly about these philosophical issues we must first fully understand the logic they have constructed for us. In this class you will take the first step towards such an understanding by learning how to reason within classical symbolic logic. Prepare yourself for a symbolic language!
Required reading: "Symbolic Logic: a first course" by Gary Hardegree.
This second edition of the book is available here. If you want a hard copy of the third edition, you can buy that here. There are some typos in this text. Click here for the corrections.
For all details concerning the class mechanics, enter the class via UMass Online, VISTA.
Contact Info: ebohn[at]philos.umass.edu