Professor Miklos Redei, LAK 4.03

This course is available on the MSc in Economics and Philosophy, MSc in Philosophy of Science and MSc in Philosophy of the Social Sciences. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Introductory level logic to a level equivalent to a grade of at least 65 in either Logic (PH101) or Formal Methods of Philosophical Argumentation (PH419). 

The aim of the course is to familiarize students of philosophy with the essentials of naive set theory and formal logic. From set theory, the course covers (i) what is needed for use in formal reasoning, and (ii) what is of philosophical interest (Russell Paradox, elementary theory of cardinals and ordinals, transfinite induction, Axiom of Choice, Continuum Hypothesis). From logic, it begins by reviewing and extending basic material on propositional and first-order logic from both semantic and axiomatic viewpoints, continues with the basic meta theorems of first order logic (Gödel) and ends with an introduction to propositional modal logic. Throughout, a balance is sought between formal proof and intuition, as also between technical competence and conceptual reflection.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

In each term, students are required to submit solutions to two problem-sets, and write one 1,500 word essay on a topic from a list or proposed by the student and approved by the instructor.

Textbooks: Cameron, Peter: Sets, Logic and Categories (Springer, 1999); Sider, Theodore: Logic for Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2010). Specific sections of these texts that are relevant to weekly topics will be indicated in the detailed course description and in the Moodle page of the course.  

Additional reading: Halmos, Paul: Naive Set Theory (Springer reprint 2011); Crossley, John: What is Mathematical Logic? (Dover reprint 1991); Goble, Lou ed.: The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic (Blackwell, 2001). Additional material on special topics will be made available on Moodle.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the summer exam period.