PHI 340. Philosophical Logic

PHI 340: Philosophical Logic

Spring 2007

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Announcements

Here are the instructions written on the exam.
You might want to familiarize yourself with them in advance.

You may consult the readings and your notes, but not the internet, another person, or any other texts.
You may take three hours.
Do not write your answers on this page. We will not evaluate any work written on this page. (And please use a seperate bluebook for scratch work.)
Unless otherwise stated for a particular problem, you may not appeal to any theorems proved in the texts or in homework exercises. You are always free to appeal to definitions from the texts (but needn't mention the definitions explicitly).

Further Helpful Information:
- There will be a problem asking you to decide whether a certain 1-premise inference is valid or not on both Stalnaker's and Lewis's semantics for the subjunctive conditional.
  
  Therefore, you should get familiar with which inferences are valid and which not on the two different semantics. You should also be familiar with how to prove validity or give counterexamples for these kinds of cases.
- There will also be a question asking you to figure out whether a certain 1-premise inference involving an indicative conditional is o-reasonable or m-reasonable according to Stalnaker. You need to make sure you're familiar with hos to prove/disprove reasonable inferences, on the two definitions.
- There will be a question concerning the properties of systems of spheres derived from systems of comparative similarity. Get familiar with the intuitive connections between a C-system c and its derived S-system $^c.
- For the Chellas problems, you will need to be familiar with the properties of normal modal systems, and with how to do proofs about them using induction (of the kind we had on the preliminary exam).
- You will also need to know how to do soundness and completeness proofs, so get familar with how to do the different kinds of completeness proofs, including those involving direct appeal to Lindenbaum's Lemma.
- For general advice, I'd encourage you to plan how to get the most amount of partial credit that you can get for problems you're having difficulty with. You will get partial credit when you tell us the different steps involved in a proof: its structure, or what you'd have to prove in order to prove the final result.
I've written up a handout on Stalnaker's paper, stating and formalizing relevant definitions for the homework.
Due date for Stalnaker homework has been extended to Tuesday of next week (24~APR~07).
Correction: Stalnaker-Lewis lectures begin on April 10^th, not April 17^th, as originally listed.
Change of plan: I have decided to split problem set 6 into two parts so that you now have a shortish assignment due on Tuesday, April 3^rd, and a normal-length one due on Tuesday, April 10^th.
We will have a preliminary exam in precept on Monday, March 12^th, 2007. You should be prepared to be examined on all of the material through covered through §4.1. You may use the Chellas book, and one sheet of notes (both sides), during the exam.
Homeworks are due by 5PM in Andrea's mailbox in 1879 Hall; they may be turned in earlier (e.g., during lecture or precept). Read Andrea's Precept info sheet here.
Office hours are announced:
- Andrea Brewer: M 1-3
- Delia Fara M 2³⁰-4³⁰
This course may be taken to satisfy the philosophy graduate student logic requirement.

Syllabus and Assignments
Last update: "Tuesday, 01 May 2007, 10:18"

Instructors

Prof.: Delia Graff Fara
Email: graff [at] princeton [dot] edu
Office: 1879 Hall room 122
Office Hours: Monday 2:30-4:30

Preceptor: Andrea Brewer
Email: abrewer [at] princeton [dot] edu
Office: 1879 Hall room 111
Office Hours: Monday 1:00-3:00

Course Info

Lecture Times: Tuesday - Thursday 11:00-12:30
Lecture Location: McCosh64 (note new room)
(Optional?) Section Times: Monday 10:00-10:50, 11:00-11:50 Section Location: 1879 Hall Room 119

Course Description

In this course we will investigate various logics of necessity and possibility ("modal logic"). We will study formal proof procedures as well as possible worlds semantics. We will also prove various "meta" results, including completeness theorems. The techniques learned in this part of the course will then be applied to the study of natural language conditionals. Further topics may include two-dimensional modal logic, counterpart theory, the logic of epistemological or deontological operators.

Interested in finding out a bit more about modal logic?
Read the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Modal Logic.

Required Texts:

Brian Chellas:
Modal Logic: An Introduction
(Cambridge University Press).

David Lewis:
Counterfactuals
(Blackwell Publishers).

You should be able to order the Lewis book online. A Good online source to check is Blackwell Publishing. For used copies, you might try alibris.com.

Prerequisites

PHI 201 or equivalent, including
Experience and facility with formal proofs, or
Successful completion of any course which uses or presupposes a significant portion of the above.

With permission of the instuctor, students may take this course who do not have a background in logic, if they have successfully completed a rigorous, theoretical, proof-based course in the mathematics or computer science department.

Course Requirements

Weekly (Roughly) Homeworks: total 65%
Preliminary Exam: 15%
Final Exam: 20%

This page created by Delia Graff Fara
URL:http://www.princeton.edu/~graff/phi340/index.html
Last modified: "Tuesday, 15 May 2007, 13:49"