INTRODUCTION TO FORMAL LOGIC (KMCR)

Catalog description

Course is designed to sharpen students' reasoning skills and to help them better understand the structure of reasoning in general. Students are introduced to some formal languages, including propositional logic and predicate logic, that represent the logical structure of deductive reasoning. Unlike natural languages such as English, these formal languages allow students to focus on the general structure of different types of arguments. The course covers both the construction of formal proofs in these languages, and translation between them and natural language. The study of formal logic contributes to effective and persuasive reasoning, not only in philosophy, but in any discipline or context. It also provides effective tools for evaluating the strength of natural language arguments. The skills that students acquire in this course are thus widely applicable in their personal, professional and academic lives.