Elementary Logic Part Two: The Philosophy of Logic
Lecture time: 10:10-12:00 a.m. Wednesday
Class time: 5:10-7:00 p.m. Monday
Part Two: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Logic (The Spring Semester, 2000)
The Objective and Characteristics
○The subject matter of the philosophy of logic, roughly
speaking,is a study which mainly includes discussions about the
nature oflogical concepts, philosophical implications of logical
truths and meta-logical theorems, and the impact of logical study
on contemporary philosophical investigation. Accordingly, the
main objectives of this course are:
1.To study the meaning of fundamental concepts involved in formal
logic (in particular, those which we have studied in the
elementary course), and the related problems
2.To study the construction of formal systems philosophically
3.To investigate the philosophical impact of the development of
formal logic in the last centaury (from 1879 to the 1970s)
Contents
○An introduction to the philosophy of logic
1.What is logic the study of ? Validity or logical
consequences? Model theoretical approach vs. proof-theoretical
approach to the construction of logical systems
2.Propositions, sentences and statements
3.The meaning of truth-functors: truth-tables vs. rules of
inference
4.Subject and predicates
5.Designators, description, identity and existence (Frege-Russell-
Strawson)
6.Substitutional interpretation of quantifiers versus objectual
interpretation of quantifiers
7.Truth (I): some categories of truth - necessity, analyticity
and the a priori- the nature of logical truth
8.Truth (II): some conceptions of truth - correspondence,
coherence, pragmatism and the semantic conceptions of truth
9.The principle of extensionality vs. nonextensional sentences
(intensional contexts; modal context,...); Frege`s argument
10.Classical logic versus non-classical logic; first-order
theories and beyond firsts-order logic
11.What is logic? The nature of logical truths, the metaphysical
foundation of logic and the logical foundation of metaphysics
Suggested textbooks Mark Sainsbury, Logical Form, Oxford: Basil
Blackwell, 1991.
Engel, Pascal, The Norm of Truth - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Logic, translated by P. Engel and M. Kochan, New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989.