PHIL 292
Fall 2026
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01
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This course focuses on some principal philosophical issues raised by logic and mathematics. In the first half, we will investigate a range of characterizations of the nature of logic and address the following questions. Is logic a set of true propositions or a set of rules governing correct reasoning? How, if at all, is logic connected with psychology, i.e., with facts about how we think? Is logic in some sense necessary? What, if anything, can logic tell us about the nature and constitution of reality? In the second half we shift to 3 main positions on the nature of mathematics. We start with the view that mathematics is just logic, a view known as logicism. We elaborate logicism by contrast with the Kantian view that mathematics rests on the spatial and temporal forms of one of our cognitive faculties, and against the background of certain conceptual development in 19th-century mathematics. We will go into some relatively non-technical details of how Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell attempted to justify logicism. We will uncover some deep problems with logicism, which partly motivates the other two positions we will examine: the (Kantian) formalist conception of mathematics advanced by David Hilbert, and the (Kantian) intuitionist conception of mathematics advocated by L. E. J. Brouwer. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS PHIL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: PHIL202 OR COL260 OR PHIL201 OR COL359 OR CLST217 OR PHIL231 |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Philosophy) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
| Instructor(s): Shieh,Sanford Times: ..T.R.. 01:20PM-02:40PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 20 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 20 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 4 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
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