<p>The school I'm going to requires a credit in math, and this intro philosophy class fulfills it. I'm interested in philosophy anyways, so I figure this would be a good way of fulfilling a core requirement. I have some questions about it though. Is this class too difficult for a first semester freshman in college to handle? What exactly does the class cover?</p>
1 Like
<p>It’s probably not too hard. If you have all the prerequisites for it, you should be able to do it.</p>
<p>I’m guessing this will be a fairly typical introduction to mathematical logic. You should learn basic mathematical notation, Boolean algebra, and propositional and predicate calculus, at a minimum. If the course is pretty rigorous, you’ll likely also learn about formal proofs, completeness/consistency, arithmetic and Godel’s incompleteness theorems.</p>
<p>Logic really lies at the heart of modern mathematics (people were working out mathematical logic in earnest at the beginning of the 20th century, and despite many results it is still an active area of research), and is the basis for lots of “new” applied areas of mathematics and science (e.g. computer science). You should find the class very interesting, although it won’t be like other math classes you’ve had…</p>
1 Like
<p>Can you post a description of the class?</p>
<p>I took an introductory logic class in the philosophy department that covered first and second-order mathematical logic. We literally did as much logic in an entire semester as I learned in a single week of my first rigorous math class. Which is to say, the class was conceptually easy and slow-paced - but not “easy.” The professor insisted on using historical notation, which is a gazillion times more confusing than the clean mathematical notation we are using today.</p>
<p>This is the class description </p>
<p>Introduction to systems of formal logic and to the use of such systems to model and evaluate inferences made in practical reasoning and natural language. Propositional logic, first-order quantifier logic, and the metatheoretic properties of soundness and completeness will be covered.</p>
<p>I just completed pre-calculus (which included stuff like trig and discrete mathematics), so would this stuff be too advanced for me?</p>
1 Like
<p>I took pre-calculus, and I made a B in a class similar to this. You should be fine.</p>
1 Like
<p>I’ll probably take it then. It sounds very interesting.</p>
1 Like