PHIL 155.001 – Introduction to Mathematical Logic

Instructor: Steven Swartzer. This course meets MTWRF 1:15 – 2:45 p.m. in PE 216.

In this course, we will use a symbolic language to help us study the logical structure of arguments with increasing complexity. The first few weeks will involve sentential or propositional logic. We will learn how to translate English sentences into a basic symbolic language for propositional logic. Using this language, we will employ three methods (truth tables, the tree method, and natural deduction) for testing/proving the validity of arguments and other important logical results. The rest of the course will add complexity to what we learn in the first few weeks by introducing a more sophisticated symbolic language for monadic and relational predicate logic with identity. Along with this more complex language, we will introduce new rules for use in the natural deduction system and tree method from the first part of the term