Intro to Mathematical Logic (PHIL 155)

This course is an introduction to symbolic logic. We’ll be approaching logic as the science of good reasoning. In order to study good reasoning in itself, we have to abstract away from the misleading and ambiguous forms of English sentences and learn a purely formal, mathematical language. Having learned this language, students will gain a number of other skills. They will evaluate whether various arguments are valid or not, prove various theorems in the formal language, and build their own valid arguments. These skills are useful in a number of areas in life.

Textbook: Language, Proof, and Logic. 2nd. Edition. Dave Barker-Plummer, Jon Barwise, and John Etchemendy. CSLI Publications: Stanford, California. ISBN 9781575866321.

(We’ll be using the software that comes with the book. You can only register once for the software, so you won’t be able to use someone else’s copy. I would avoid buying used copies for this reason.They released the 2nd edition in Sept. 2011, so be careful about which book you buy.)

Craig Warmke’s webpage