Philosophy 12A

This is a first course in symbolic logic. The main object of study is the notion of a valid argument in a formal language. We will cover propositional logic (intuitively, the logic of ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if-then’, and ‘not’) and first-order logic (the logic that adds predicates and quantifiers ‘all’ and ‘some’), including their syntax and semantics, proof in those logics, and symbolization of informal arguments into those logics. The course is meant to give students basic comfort with formal reasoning and the ability to use it even outside of formal contexts. No background is presupposed.