Logic lies at the border between philosophy and mathematics. We will approach the subject from both sides to give you a good insight into the classical art of reasoning. Have you ever felt lost in a discussion? Somebody is saying something, you just know that the person's argument is not valid but you cannot precisely spot the flaws? Does it happen that people say there is a mistake in your reasoning? In philosophy, logic is the art of correct reasoning. By use of examples we will investigate the structure of arguments. You will learn how to state your opinion in a logical way and we will diagnose invalid or improper argumentation.
Mathematics, in principle, is the formal language of logic and we can use it to analyze the structure of an argument and assess its formal validity. You will learn to express statements in compact symbolic form. We will also examine the validity of arguments by use of truth tables and deal with some forms of mathematical proofs. The mathematics that we will be using is called Boolean algebra.
