Winter 2022
04124880 Philosophical Logic
Tue 10:00–11:35 AM / Thu 4:15–5:50 PM at 1A East Hall, 314
Course Information
Instructor Dr. Bruno Bentzen
TA Huayu Guo
Office Location Chengjun Complex 4, 306
Office Hours Wed 3:00–5:00 PM (or by appointment)
Email bbentzen at zju.edu.cn
Credits 32 hours (8 weeks)
Course Description
This course focuses on the philosophical examination of the fundamental concepts of logic, with emphasis on their motivation of different logics that extend, restrict, or deviate from the so-called classical propositional and first-order logics.
Course Materials and Resources
This course is roughly based on the textbook:
MacFarlane, J. (2020). Philosophical Logic: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.
Course objectives
Upon the successful completion of this course, you will:
gain a deeper understanding of second-order quantifiers
be familiar with the central concepts of logic;
have a basic understanding of the K, T, D, B, S4, and S5 modal logics
distinguish between the semantic and proof-theoretic accounts of logical consequence
acquire a better understanding of intuitionistic logic
Assessment and grades
Final exam 50%
Homework 40%
Participation 10%
Homework
Each homework assignment must be completed and turned in on time. I wish to evaluate your performance, so your homework should reflect your own efforts. Homework will be assigned weekly every Thursday and will be due on the following Thursday in class. No late homework will be accepted. If you missed the deadline because you were ill or for some other valid reason, please send me an email. Your solutions must be written legibly. The corrected homework will be returned to you on the Tuesday that follows the due date.
Attendance policy
You are expected to attend every lecture and be on time. If you cannot come to class due to an emergency please let me know as soon as possible. If you miss a class it is your responsibility to make up the material missed and catch up with your classmates.
Feedback
I welcome feedback, be it positive or negative. If you wish, you can do this by speaking to me directly after class, sending me an email, or, if you prefer, sending me an anonymous note. Giving feedback will not have any effect on your grade, neither positively nor negatively. But it will help me to see my lectures from different angles and develop new ways of improving them.
Schedule (tentative)
Week 01: Preliminaries (Ch. 1)
Week 02: Quantifiers (Ch. 2)
Week 03: Modal logic (Ch. 3)
Week 04: Conditionals (Ch. 4)
Week 05: Semantic logical consequence (Ch. 5)
Week 06: Proof-theoretic logical consequence (Ch. 6)
Week 07: Relevance (Ch. 7)
Week 08: Review session and final exam
Past instances
Winter 2022
Please let me know if you find any broken links.