First days of a logic course
Abstract
Reception: March 10, 2017 Accepted: June 13, 2017 This short paper sketches one logician’s opinion of some basic ideas that should be presented on the first days of any logic course. It treats the nature and goals of logic. It discusses what a student can hope to achieve through study of logic. And it warns of problems and obstacles a student will have to overcome or learn to live with. It introduces several key terms that a student will encounter in logic. A proposition is either true or false per se, not “for this or that person”. An argument is either valid or invalid per se, not “for this or that person”. An argumentation is either conclusive or inconclusive, not per se, but for a person. However, that a given argumentation is conclusive for a given person is undeniably a matter of that person’s subjective thoughts—but only in certain respects: if a given argumentation is conclusive for one person but not for another, the first knows something the second doesn’t know. And not every argumentation thought by a given person to be conclusive for that person actually is conclusive for that person. There is more to an argumentation’s conclusiveness than subjectivity. Suggested readings are given in parenthetical citations keyed to the References list.References
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