Philosophy 4310:
Advanced LoGic: Conditionals
Spring, 2017

Professor Joel Velasco
Office: 265G (Eng/phil building)
Office Hours: T, W, TH 11-12:00 or by appointment

Class meets T/TH, 2:00-3:20 (in Phil 164)

All of the boilerplate information such as course policies and the grading scheme can be found on the syllabus. The readings for the course are below.

Syllabus

Required Books:

A Philosophical Guide to Conditionals by Jonathan Bennett. Oxford, 2003.

All class assignments and any other readings will be found on this website. You should check this website reguarly for updates and bring copies of the assigned readings to class.

This is a tentative schedule/reading list:

Week 1 -

Thur, 1/19
- Introduction
Extras

Week 2 -

Tue, 1/24
- Lemmon, Beginning Logic, Ch 1.1, 1.2 (Blackboard)
- Teller, A Modern Formal Logic Primer, Ch 4 - Validity and Conditionals (Blackboard)
- Barker-Plummer, Barwise, and Etchemendy, Language, Proof, and Logic, Ch 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2 (Blackboard)
Thu, 1/26
Extras:
- Sample proofs Lemmon style for conditionals are here and RAA here
- Sample proofs Teller/LPL style can be found in slides for lectures 16-19 here

Week 3 -

Tue, 1/31
- Homework 1 due
- Bennett, Ch 1-3
Thu, 2/2
- No new reading
Extras:
- Harman, If and Modus Ponens
- Grice, Logic and Conversation (Blackboard)
- Grice, Indicative Conditionals (Blackboard)
- Jackson, On Assertion and Indicative Conditionals
- Wireless Philosophy (from Khan Academy) - section on Language (including multiple videos on conditionals)

Week 4 -

Tue, 2/7
- Titelbaum, Fundamentals of Bayesian Epistemology, Ch 2 (Blackboard)
Thu, 2/9
- Titelbaum, FBE, Ch 3.1 (on conditional credences)
- Bayes' Theorem examples
Extras:

Week 5 -

Tue, 2/14
- Bennett, Ch 4
Thu, 2/16
- Hw2 due
- Titelbaum, Ch 3.3 (conditional credences and conditionals)
- Bennett, Ch 5
Extras:
- Stalnaker, Probability and Conditionals

Week 6 -

Tue, 2/21
- Titelbaum, Ch 3.3 (conditional credences and conditionals)
- Bennett, Ch 5
Thu, 2/23
- Bennett, Ch 6
Extras:
- Lewis, Probabilities of Conditionals and Conditional Probability
- Stalnaker, Indicative Conditionals

Week 7 -

Tue, 2/28
- review
Thu, 3/2
- Bennett, Ch 7
Extras:
- Adams, The Logic of Conditionals (first paper with mostly informal arguments for the NTV view)

Week 8 -

Tue, 3/7
- Bennett, Ch 8
Thu, 3/9
- Bennett, Ch 9
- Hm 3 due - HELP on homework 3
Extras:
- Adams, The Logic of Conditionals (book with all the details and the logic - on Blackboard)

Spring Break - No Class on March 14, March 16

Week 9 -

Tue, 3/21
- Bennett, Ch 10
Thu, 3/23
- No class - Joel gone for conference
Extras:

Week 10 -

MON - March 27th - First paper due

Tue, 3/28
- Bennett, Ch 11
Thu, 3/30
- Lewis, from Counterfactuals (chapter 1)
Extras:

Week 11 -

Tue, 4/4
- More from Lewis ch 1
Thu, 4/6
- Bennett Chs 12 + 13
Extras:
- Lewis, from Counterfactuals (chapter 2)

Week 12 -

Tue, 4/11
- Homework 4 due
- Bennett ch 13
Thu, 4/13
- Lewis, Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow
Extras:
- Lewis, postscripts to Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow

Week 13 -

Tue, 4/18
- Hájek, Most Counterfactuals are False (first 37 pages)
Thu, 4/20
- Homework 5 due
- Hájek, Most Counterfactuals are False (through page 60)
Extras:

Week 14 -

Tue, 4/25
- Hájek, Probabilities of Counterfactuals and Counterfactual Probabilities
Thu, 4/27
- Lewis, Causation
Extras:
- Edgington, Counterfactuals
- Leitgeb, A Probabilistic Semantics for Counterfactuals Part A
- Leitgeb, A Probabilistic Semantics for Counterfactuals Part B

Week 15 -

Tue, 5/2
- Lewis, Postscripts to Causation - (starts with 'A. Piecemeal Causation')
Thu, 5/4
- Homework 6 due
- Kolodny and McFarlane, Ifs and Oughts
Extras:

Week 16 -

Tue, 5/9 (last day of class)
Extras:

Final Paper (and redos of hmw 6) due Tue, May 16th 2:00 pm