General | What to buy | Preparation | Topic 1 | Topic 2 | Topic 3 | Topic 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Marking Code | Model Answers
This term marks the start of a new syllabus, and a new division of labour on how Logic is taught in Oxford. It will be a while before the new set-up beds down properly, and accordingly these pages are under continuous reconstruction. For now, the General information, instructions on What to Buy, and Preparation have been redesigned. The rest will be altered as term proceeds. There is no point in using the other links as yet.
You will be taught in classes this term. Each week there will be:
a UNIVERSITY LECTURE in Schools on Mondays at noon, which you are required to attend until further notice;
an INPUT class, which all attend, on Mondays, 5 - 7 in Lecture Room 23;
a SURGERY (voluntary) for those needing help with their work for the week, Wednesdays 9 - 10 in Lecture Room 23;
a DEBRIEFING class on Fridays, either 2-4 or 4.30 - 6.30, which will be likewise in Lecture Room 23.
It is vital that your weekly work is in by the deadline, 9am Friday morning. Marking it is an immense task, and it will help your tutors if some work can come in beforehand, but everybody's work MUST be in the appropriate pigeonholes by the deadline.
The Philosophy Faculty offers various resources on logic. You should visit their pages.
Logic, by Wilfrid Hodges, second edition, Penguin 2001..
We do not require you to buy a copy, but it might be a good idea. Especially as its secon-hand price willbe approaching zero. Last year's students will no doubt have copies to lend/give to you.
You will also need to have some idea of language works, English in particular. Buy
Some students find a pamphlet issued by the Philosophy Faculty useful. You may find it occasionally useful too, even though it was designed to fit the old course. But we do not insist that you buy a copy:
And anyone who has yet to puchase a philosophical dictionary, indispensable item of scholar's equipment, should do so NOW. There are many on the market. We recommend
which has an entry under 'sex'. And many other items of interest.
Hodges: §§ 1 - 8, 12 - 15
Pinker: As much as you can , but at least chapters 1, 4, 5.
That you grasp the basic vocabulary of English Grammar, either from Pinker, or with the aid of The Internet Grammar of English
The ten sentences below. Each is ambiguous, some of them multiply so. Try to spot all the different interpretations of them, and think about how to classify them.
[1] Manson drove Sharon to the bank
[2] The Thompson twins can fish
[3] Ponting drives wide of mid-off
[4] We must have the worst JCR food in Oxford
[5] Bush is dangerous and mad or just plain stupid
[6] Sally's cousin is engaged to her former husband
[7] Zebedee only reads books in libraries
[8] Everyone in Balliol is dreaming about someone in Wadham
[9] Florence wants to marry a Norwegian
[10] Dougal is looking for a doughnut
As for Preparation above , but you may also find the Lecture notes useful. Try to finish off the Pinker, and if there is any time left over, continue with Hodges.
Here it is.
Preparation for ClassRead Hodges §§ 9-11
Here are two documents you may find useful
Classical Entailment and Validity
Work for Week 2
Here you go.
None
Download a sheet of blank truth-tables. Take as many copies as you need. Which is probably a lot, given that you will need plenty of practice. Your task this week is to make yourself utterly familiar with truth-tables, and to be able to perform simple proofs in Natural Deuction. In following weeks we shall presuppose a firm grasp of both techniques.
And your weekly exercises are here.
Read, and think about, Hodges on §18.
Here you are. Aim for exam standards, please.
Read, and think about, Hodges §§34 - 6 .
Hodges on Predicate Formalisation may be helpful. But ignore what he says about designators.The Slocombe volume may also be helpful.
Here you go.
Here it is.
Here we occasionally publish weekly work, handed in by students, which is so good that it serves as a model for everyone. We are grateful to the students comcerned for graciously allowing us to make their work available to a wider audience.
So far we have one such piece. We are grateful to Eleanor and Simon for permission to reproduce their excellent answers on Week 3's exercises on validity. Here you go.
Here you will find avuncular advice on various matters. So far there are no pages, but that's because nobody has emailed me with a request.
If you have got this far , you are entitled to a philosophical treat. Here it is: Raphael's School of Athens, with Plato and Aristotle centre stage:
