2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

PHIL3123 Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics

20 creditsClass Size: 40

Module manager: Dr Jack Woods
Email: j.woods@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

Pre-requisite qualifications

One of:

PHIL2122 Formal Logic;
PHIL2542 Introduction to Metaphysics
MATH2041 Logic

This module is mutually exclusive with

MATH3021	Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics
MATH5021M	Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Understand and discuss critically in detail the philosophical issues concerning the nature and application of logic or mathematics;
- Read, interpret and criticise historical and contemporary research work on the subject.

Syllabus

Students will study a selection from the following/relevantly similar topics:
- Philosophy of Mathematics Logicism (Frege, Russell, etc) Intuitionism (Kant and Kantians, Brouwer)
- Formalism (Hilbert) The metaphysics of mathematical objects: realism and nominalism The epistemology of mathematics The (unreasonable?) effectiveness of mathematics in the sciences.
- Philosophy of Logic What is logic?
- Logical constants; the scope of logic; higher order logic.
- Logical concepts: philosophical analysis of one or more of: the conditional, quantifiers, negation, definite descriptions etc.
- Alternative logics: free logic; many-valued and fuzzy logics; intuitionistic logic; relevance logics.
- Modern theories of truth from Russell to the present: correspondence, redundancy, Tarski, minimalism, truthmaker theory.
- Theories of vagueness: fuzzy logic, supervaluation, epistemic theories. Intensional logics, their uses and justifications.
- Paradoxes: types and avoidance strategies.
- Expanding logic: Generalised Quantifiers; Indexicals; Tense; Logic Diagrams.
- Approached to logic: formalist; semantic; logic in use.
- Logic and ontology.
- Logic, cognition and natural language; non-monotonic logics.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Tutorial	10	1.00	10.00
Private study hours			179.00
Total Contact hours			21.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Lecture preparation: 59 hours
Tutorial preparation: 60 hours
Assessment preparation: 60 hours

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will have the opportunity to submit a draft of their essay for feedback mid-module (maximum 2000 words).
Students will be invited to prepare and present material during seminars.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3000 words (end of module)	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 18/09/2024

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