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PHIL512 - Agenda and Notes

Agenda

  1. Review Ch2, pp.41-98
    • PL Language
    • PL Symbols
    • PL Syntax
    • PL Semantics
    • PL Translation: Simple
    • PL Translation: Complex
  2. Pedagogical Issues
    • Top-down or bottom-up approaches
    • Exclusive vs. Inclusive OR
    • Teaching the Conditional
    • "P unless Q"

Questions from last time

  1. Quizzes: Complete Module 2 quizzes (I'll make these due on Wednesday evening).
  2. Question: How would you teach the same material? Even if you would mirror my approach, what are some other approaches you might imagine?
  3. Question: What part of the lesson did you find hardest to understand? What part do you think new students to logic would have the hardest part understanding?
  4. Suppose someone were to say "we can take all natural language reasoning and translate it into symbolic logic." To what extent is this true? To what extent is it false?
  5. Students always question translating "if P then Q" sentences (conditionals) into $P\rightarrow Q$. Several options are given in the textbook, but I usually only explain one of them. How would you go about answering this question?
  6. I always think about moving the section concerning "Complex translation" to the next chapter. What do you think?

PL Language

  1. Symbols
  2. Syntax
  3. Semantics
  4. Pragmatics

PL Symbols

The alphabet of the language. Its basic characters.

PL Syntax

  1. Wffs
  2. Formation rules
  3. Propositional variables / Metalinguistic variables
  4. Three types of wffs: atomic, complex, literal
  5. Parts and subformulas
  6. Occurrences of an operator (type / token)
  7. Scope of an operator
  8. Main operator
  9. Literal Negation
  10. 9 different wff types
  11. Conventions concerning parentheses (simplification)

PL Semantics

  1. Functions
  2. Interpretation function
  3. Valuation function
  4. Truth-table presentation of valuation function

PL Translation: Simple

  1. Atomic wffs
  2. Negated wffs
  3. Conjunctions
  4. Disjunctions: OR and XOR
  5. Conditionals
  6. Biconditionals

PL Translation: Complex

  1. P and Q and R
  2. P or Q or R
  3. P and Q or R
  4. neither P nor Q
  5. not both P and Q
  6. P or Q, but not both
  7. P only if Q
  8. P even if Q
  9. P unless Q

Next Time

  1. Two options: read chs. 3 and 4 or just read ch.3
  2. Quizzes: module 3 and 4