Introduction to Logic

Catalog description

All philosophers are wise, and Socrates is a philosopher. Therefore, Socrates is wise. The topic of this course is the nature of this "therefore." Logic is the science of reasoning, the study of the ways in which statements support or contradict one another. In this course, we will investigate and expose the logical structure of everyday language and see how the correctness or incorrectness of reasoning depends on this structure. To aid discussion, we will develop a formal language that makes this underlying structure more perspicuous. With this formal language as a tool, we will be able to construct elaborate proofs and explore the logical relations among the various steps of complex arguments.