Short courses

Summary

In our world of competing opinions and biases, it can be difficult to find a reasonable, repeatable, and accurate way to interrogate what’s really going on. Being logical is a proper or sound way of thinking about something, good judgement or some might say practical common sense. The rules of logic have been developed over more than two millennia by contributions from numerous philosophers, mathematicians, and empirical scientists, including famous names such as Socrates, Plato, Leibniz, Boole, Frege, and Russell. But what are those rules, exactly? And how can they applied to produce logical proofs? 

Join this course to explore these and further questions through an introduction to the basic elements of formal logic including concepts such as semantic entailment and truth functionality, as well as how to apply basic logical notation (translating from ordinary language into the language of formal logic) and produce logical proofs. 

Over a series of talks and selected readings, our expert tutor will explain: 

• the basic elements of formal logic including concepts such as semantic entailment and truth functionality, as well as how to apply basic logical notation (translating from ordinary language into the language of formal logic) and produce logical proofs.  
• the context these ideas emerged from and how they can be applied today 

You will also have the chance to discuss and reflect on what you learn with other students and the tutor in seminars 

Choose this course if you want to learn: 

• The basic philosophical problems and arguments concerning Logic, reasoning and critical thinking 
• How to share your thinking in discussion and learn from others