In addition, most class sessions will also contain a discussion of a social issue, led by two students. The question of how we can be certain we have hold of truth has perplexed thinkers for years, so much so that some have even rejected the notion that there is any real truth to be had. The central emphasis will be on class discussions of these topics. Several class debates will be organized and three papers will be assigned. This is an introductory course in philosophical logic.
Theory is kept to a minimum.
The emphasis is on practice. Much of the work is problem solving. The basic structure of logical procedure is used to sort out the coherence of arguments in ordinary language, and in symbolic and quantified language. The course will fulfill the HML core requirement and also will have a quantitative flag. This class will examine a number of different ways in which human interaction with the nonhuman world might be shown to possess ethical dimensions that have until now largely been overlooked.