PHIL 125 - Logic

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Some arguments seem to be strong while other arguments are unconvincing. But what makes for a good argument? Formal logic provides a framework to precisely define notions of proof, truth, and validity which we can use in answering this question. In this course, in studying notions central to deductive logic, we translate sentences from natural language into symbolic language and evaluate the logical structure of arguments built from these sentences. Studying formal logic can help you pay close attention to what a claim says (as well as to what it doesn’t say) and can help you get better at thinking clearly about argument structure.

Logic has played an important role in the development of many other fields and students find rich connections between this course and other courses they go on to take in philosophy, computer science, mathematics, linguistics, and others. This is designed as a fully introductory course, however, and does not assume any previous background in mathematics or logic. Kate Pendoley.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS