Phil 142

Philosophy of Logic

Fall 2006

Professor Paolo Mancosu

Office: 233 Moses Hall

Phone: 642-5033

E-mail: mancosu@socrates.berkeley.edu

Class meets: T.Th. 9.30-11.00

Office hours: T. 11-12.30

Course Description

The course aims at introducing the students to the basic topics in philosophy of logic. Topics to be covered will be selected among the following: theories of truth, logical consequence, modal notions (necessity/possibility) and possible world semantics, vagueness, quantification, existence and descriptions, first vs second-order logic, extensionality vs intensionality, realism and antirealism in logic.

Prerequisites: Phil 12A (or equivalent) [no exceptions!] and at least another course in philosophy

Graduate Instructor:

Mike Caie: caie@berkeley.edu Office hours: T.B.A., Sections: T.B.A., Room: T.B.A.

Textbooks:

S. Read, Thinking about Logic, Oxford University Press, 1995.

Kenneth Konyndyk, Introductory Modal Logic, University of Notre Dame Press, 1986.

Packet of Readings #1: Contains all the readings for the first five weeks. Available at Copy Central, 2560 Bancroft, Berkeley

Course requirements and grading: four exercise sets, midterm, and final. The final grade will be computed as follows: exercise sets are to count for 40% of course grade, midterm 20%, and final 40%. Grading will be in straight percentages (no curve): 90-100% = A range; 80-89% = B range; 70-79% = C range; 60-69% = D range; <60% = F

Schedule

PART I: Connectives, quantifiers and singular terms

Week 1: Introduction; Connectives Readings: A. N. Prior, The Runabout Inference-Ticket, in I.M. Copi, J.A. Gould, eds. Contemporary Philosophical Logic, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978, pp. 37-38.

N. D. Belnap, Tonk, Plonk and Plink, in I.M. Copi, J.A. Gould, eds. Contemporary Philosophical Logic, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978, pp. 44-48.

Week 2: First-Order Logic; formal definition of truth in a model; second-order logic; quantifiers. Readings: W. Hodges, Classical Logic I: First-Order Logic, in Lou Gable ed., The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic, Blackwell, 2001, pp. 9-32.

J. Nolt, Classical Predicate Logic: Semantics, in J. Nolt, Logics, Wadsworth, Belmont, 1997, pp.185-201.

S. Shapiro, Classical Logic II: Higher-Order Logic, in Lou Gable ed., The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic, Blackwell, 2001, pp. 33-54.

J. Nolt, Higher-Order Logics, in J. Nolt, Logics, Wadsworth, Belmont, 1997, pp.382-389.

Ex. Set #1: satisfaction, first order, and second order logic [due after 10 days]

Week 3: Singular terms; Definite descriptions; ontology and existence. Readings: S. Read, Thinking about Logic: pp.121-131

B. Russell, On Denoting, in I.M. Copi, J.A. Gould, eds. Contemporary Philosophical Logic, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978, pp. 85-96.

W. Quine, On what there is, in I.M. Copi, J.A. Gould, eds. Contemporary Philosophical Logic, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978, pp. 135-148.

Week 4: Free Logics, meinongian models and supervaluations Readings: S. Read, Thinking about Logic: pp.131-147

K. Lambert, Free Logics, in Lou Gable ed., The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic, Blackwell 2001, pp. 258-279.

J. Nolt, Supervaluations, in J. Nolt, Logics, Wadsworth, Belmont, 1997, pp.414-419.

E. Bencivenga, Free from What?, in E. Bencivenga, Looser Ends, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1989, pp. 120-129.

Ex. Set #2: free logics and supervaluations [due after 10 days]

Week 5: Sentences, statements, propositions.

Readings: R. E Grandy, What do ‘Q’ and ‘R’ stand for anyway?, in R.I. Hughes, A Philosophical Companion to First-Order Logic, Hackett, Indianapolis, 1993, pp.50-61.

Part II: Truth, Logical Consequence and Relevance

Exercise set #3.

Part III: Modalities

Exercise set # 4.

Topics and readings for part II, and III will be announced later in the semester.