PH437      Half Unit
Advanced Logic

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Students taking this course should already have taken a year-long introductory course in logic in a Philosophy Department, or a mathematical course that covers the basics of logic. If in doubt whether you satisfy this pre-requisite, consult the Teacher Responsible.

The course begins with taking a look at the big picture: the main problems and milestones of modern logic. Then, after a quick review of classical propositional and first-order predicate logic, the course delves into the central meta-theorems about classical logic (such as the soundness and completeness theorems). This will lead the way to an outline of the famous limitative results that have philosophical ramifications: Godel's incompleteness theorems and Tarski's undefinability theorem. The course also covers extensions of and alternatives to classical logic, namely modal logic, provability logic, and intuitionistic logic.

15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

10 x 1.5 hours of lectures and 10 x 1.5 hours of seminars in the Winter Term. 

Students are required to submit solutions to two problem-sets, and write one essay on a topic selected from a list or proposed by the student and approved by the instructor in the Winter Term.

• Sider, Theodore (2010): Logic for Philosophy (Oxford University Press).
• Cameron, Peter J. (1999): Sets, Logic and Categories (Springer).
• Curry, H.B. (1963): Foundations of Mathematical Logic (McGraw-Hill).
• Smith, P. (2016). Godel without (too many) tears. 2016. Available online.

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

The exam questions are chosen from a list of questions that are made available at the beginning of the academic year ("seen exam").