Syllabus

Reading Schedule

Handouts & Assignments

Supplemental Questions

Final Exam Study Guide

Internet Links
 

This is the Homepage for Mathematics 291: Symbolic Logic.  From this page, using the links to the left, you will be able to access all the on-line class materials, including a syllabus, the schedule of readings and assignments, as well as copies of any handouts and class assignments.  Using the links above, you will be able to access Andrew Mills' Homepage, the Class Resources Homepage (containing links to all the courses Prof. Mills teaches) as well as the Department of Religion and Philosophy Homepage.  If you ever get lost, clicking on Gottlob Frege's picture (that's the fellow with the beard up there) will bring you back to this page.

This course is an introduction to symbolic logic. We will cover propositional logic (the logic of sentences) and predicate logic (the logic of parts of sentences), and, if time permits, we will dip into some metalogical issues, such as the soundness and completeness of our logical system.  We will, from time to time, deal with some philosophical issues about the logical system we have developed. 
This all sounds like pretty heady stuff, but do not fear: this course presupposes no mathematical or philosophical skills beyond what you picked up in high school.

It is my intention that you come away from this course with a proficiency at first-order propositional and predicate logic, and an appreciation for the (broadly speaking) mathematical manner of thinking that is involved in a system of formal logic.

If you are a philosophy major, this course counts as your logic requirement (i.e., as Philosophy 270).  This course also meets the B.A. Math requirement (and that’s true for everyone—philosophy major and others as well).