Scribd
Upload
127 views

Logic 2: Modal Logics Course Guide (2020/2021)

This course focuses on modal extensions of logic, including propositional and predicate logic. It will introduce standard models and proofs for propositional modal logic and explore philosophical applications like the logic of knowledge, obligation, time, and conditionals. Classes will include online lectures, tasks and live tutorials. Assessment is based on three take-home tests accounting for 20%, 30%, and 50% of the final grade. The provisional syllabus covers topics like possible worlds semantics, accessibility relations, proofs, epistemic logic, deontic logic, temporal logic, and semantics for modal predicate logic.

Uploaded by

Marcos del Río
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
127 views

Logic 2: Modal Logics Course Guide (2020/2021)

This course focuses on modal extensions of logic, including propositional and predicate logic. It will introduce standard models and proofs for propositional modal logic and explore philosophical applications like the logic of knowledge, obligation, time, and conditionals. Classes will include online lectures, tasks and live tutorials. Assessment is based on three take-home tests accounting for 20%, 30%, and 50% of the final grade. The provisional syllabus covers topics like possible worlds semantics, accessibility relations, proofs, epistemic logic, deontic logic, temporal logic, and semantics for modal predicate logic.

Uploaded by

Marcos del Río
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Logic 2: Modal Logics

Course Guide (2020/2021)

Course organiser:
Dr Wolfgang Schwarz ([email protected])
Course administrator:
Ann-Marie Cowe ([email protected])

Course description

This course is a follow-on course to Logic 1 focusing on modal extensions of classical


propositional and predicate logic. Modal logic is used to reason about possibility and
necessity, knowledge and belief, permission and obligation, past and future, and a variety
of other topics. The first part of the course will introduce standard models and proofs for
propositional modal logic, with a brief look at the meta-logical properties of soundness
and completeness. We will then go through a range of philosophical applications, studying
the logic of knowledge, the logic of obligation, the logic of time, and logical properties
of ‘if-then’ constructions. Finally, we will turn to quantified modal logic. We will look
at the choices between constant and variable domains, rigid and non-rigid names, and
discuss whether standard predicate logic should be weakened to a “free” logic.
Weekly classes will probably consist of online lectures and tasks, as well as a two-hour
live tutorial, of which the first hour is compulsory.
Due to uncertainty about the extent to which the university will be open for in-person
classes, information about class timing and format is subject to change. Please consult
the LEARN page for the course.
The lecture notes with exercises are available at https://www.wolfgangschwarz.net/logic2/
logic2.pdf. This is the only required reading.
If you want to get a wider perspective, you may find one or more of the following books
useful (listed in increasing difficulty):

• Rod Girle, Modal Logics and Philosophy, 2nd edition, 2009


• Graham Priest, An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic, 2nd edition, 2008
• G.E. Hughes and Max Cresswell, A New Introduction to Modal Logic, 1996

1
Assessment

The course is assessed by three take home tests, accounting for 20%, 30%, and 50% of
the mark.

Provisional syllabus

Week 1: Modal Operators

Reasoning with necessity and possibility. Translating from English. Different meanings
of ‘possible’. Some logical principles.

Week 2: Possible Worlds

Basic possible-worlds semantics for modal propositional logic. Tree rules to establish
validity and to find counterexamples.

Week 3: Accessibility

Adding an accessibility relation to possible-worlds models. Properties of the accessibility


relation and corresponding logical systems.

Week 4: Proofs

Soundness and completeness for trees and axiomatic proofs. A brief look at the logic of
provability.

Week 5: Epistemic Logic

The logics of knowledge and belief. Gaining information as excluding possibilities. Modal
logics with multiple modalities. Interaction principles.

Week 6: Deontic Logic

The logic of obligation and permission. Ideal-worlds models. Some puzzles and paradoxes.
Neighbourhood models. The concept of conditional obligation.

2
Week 7: Temporal Logic

The logic of past, present, and future. Worlds and times. Branching time. ‘Now’.
Two-dimensional modal logics.

Week 8: Conditionals

The “paradoxes of material implication”. Strict implication. Lewis-Stalnaker conditionals.


If-clauses as restrictors.

Week 9: Towards Modal Predicate Logic

Modality de dicto and de re. Predicate logic recap. Predicate logic as a modal logic.
Challenges for a modal predicate logic.

Week 10: Semantics for Modal Predicate Logic

Quantification and existence. Constant domain models and variable domain models. Free
logics. Rigid and non-rigid designators.

You might also like