logic
TagAntidismissiveness
“When I started reading Derrida, I couldn’t understand what the heck he was talking about; but someone like Kripke, it was easy. I remember chatting to someone once who said to me ‘yeah, this Derrida guy is easy, but when I read Kripke I can’t understand a word he’s saying!’” (more…)
Logic and the Law
“‘And’ may be read ‘or,’ and ‘or’ may be read ‘and’ if the sense requires it.” (more…)
Free Software for Advanced Logic Courses
Students nowadays might struggle in more advanced logic courses not just because the material is difficult, but because they’re used to learning logic with software, which is commonly used in introductory courses, but less so in higher-level ones. (more…)
Evidence for a Probabilistic Turn in Philosophy (guest post)
“If our data is representative of the philosophy literature, then the use of formal methods in philosophy changed starkly over the course of just a single decade.” (more…)
Logic Course Breaks University of Sydney Enrollment Record — Or It Doesn’t
Over 2200 students at the University of Sydney are currently enrolled in “Philosophy 1012: Introduction to Logic,” setting a university-wide record for highest enrollment in any course the university has ever offered. (more…)
Are We Serious About Critical Thinking?
In 1979 philosopher Douglas Stalker (University of Delaware, now retired) adopted the stage persona Captain Ray of Light, a pseudo-science hawking speaker whose humorous presentations educated his audience about pseudo-science and poor thinking. (more…)
From Maps to Apps: Introducing Students to Argument-Mapping (guest post)
In the following guest post*, Chad Mohler, professor of philosophy at Truman State University, describes a cool new argument-mapping app he has created and shares a special offer with Daily Nous readers. (more…)
Fitelson Wins Wolfram Innovator Award
Branden Fitelson, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Northeastern University, is one of the winners of the 2020 Wolfram Innovator Award. (more…)
SILFS Prize for Women in Logic and Philosophy of Science Awarded
The Società Italiana di Logica e Filosofia delle Scienze / Italian Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science (SILFS) has announced the recipients of its 2020 Prize for Women in Logic and the Philosophy of Science. (more…)
Schock Prize Awarded to Prawitz and Martin-Löf
The 2020 Rolf Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy has been awarded to two philosophers from Stockholm University, Dag Prawitz and Per Martin-Löf. (more…)
World Logic Day
Today is World Logic Day. Created by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), it was first celebrated in 2019. (more…)
Formal Methods in Philosophy: Initial Thoughts and an Interactive Event (guest post by Liam Kofi Bright)
Plausible answers as to the nature of our mission as philosophy educators gives us no unique reason to focus on logic as the mathematical tool of interest to philosophers.
New Open Access Text On Probability & Decision
Jonathan Weisberg, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, has created a new open-access book on probability and decision-making. It has the brilliant title Odds & Ends. (more…)
The Logic of Mueller’s Statement
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.” (more…)
A New Kind of Critical Thinking Text (guest post by David Manley)
“What would it look like if we taught only the most useful skills from the toolkits of philosophy, cognitive psychology, and behavioral economics?” (more…)
A Philosophy Comics Substitute
I’m filling in for one of my esteemed philosophy comic strip artists this week. This is probably a mistake. (more…)
Remixing the Open Logic Text
Have you checked out the Open Logic Project recently? Created a few years ago, it’s an open-source, collaborative logic text that has several nice features. One is that the material is modular: it can be “remixed” into individual open-source texts on specialized subjects. There are now a few examples of this. (more…)
To φ Or Not To φ
“Step aside and let philosophers do their job”
Elizabeth Oljar and David Koukal (University of Detroit Mercy) have penned a spirited case for universities entrusting the teaching of critical thinking to departments of philosophy in The Chronicle of Higher Education (may be paywalled). (more…)
Randomly Generated and Self-Correcting Logic Exercises Site
Ariel Roffé, a philosophy PhD student at the University of Buenos Aires has created a website that features the random generation and automatic correction of logic exercises. (more…)
New Free Open-Source Multi-Purpose Multi-System Logic Software
Graham Leach-Krouse, assistant professor of philosophy at Kansas State University, has created some remarkable new logic software and has made it free for everyone to use and develop. He has named the software Carnap and describes it in the guest post* below. (more…)
What Should Philosophers Teach in Quantitative Reasoning Courses? (guest post by Landon D.C. Elkind)
The following is a guest post* by Landon D.C. Elkind (University of Iowa) about the content of philosophy courses that satisfy general education requirements in quantitative or formal reasoning. It originally appeared on his blog. (more…)
When Scientists Read Philosophy, Are They Reading The “Wrong Philosophers”?
“The trouble with physicists who denigrate philosophy is that they read the wrong philosophers, which sad to say is most philosophers.”
That’s Clark Glymour (Carnegie Mellon) in an interview with Richard Marshall at 3:AM Magazine. (more…)
Schock Prize Awarded to Saharon Shelah
Logician Saharon Shelah has won the 2018 Rolf Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy. (more…)
A Game for Gaining Logical Fluency
Matthias Jenny, who recently received his PhD in philosophy from MIT, has started working in the tech industry. He wrote to share with Daily Nous readers a game he created to help people develop basic logical fluency. (more…)
The Benefits of Pre-College Exposure to Philosophy: Data Needed
Occasionally philosophers make claims about the benefits of teaching elementary and high school students philosophy. (more…)
A Logic Prize In Every Country
Skepticism About Philosophy’s Capacity To Improve Thinking
Philosophy departments often include in their pitch to undergraduates the claim that studying philosophy can improve one’s thinking skills. But does it? (more…)