Philosophical logic

Basic Information

Course 2014/2015
Lecturer
Sven Rosenkranz
Semester
2nd.
Department
Department of Philosophy
University
Universitat de Barcelona
Module
Module 7. Issues in Contemporary Theoretical and Practical Philosophy
Code
570639
Credits
5
Language
English

Dates

Schedule
Thu. 11-14
Location
Room 402, Facultat de Filosofia, UB

Description

The aim of this course is to introduce students to the basic elements of tense logic and to explore central topics in the philosophy of time and their bearing on tense logic. Tense logic proceeds from the key idea that, at the level of logical analysis, tense inflections are fruitfully conceived to work like logical operators operating on present-tensed clauses. Thus, for instance, ‘Something bothered me’ and ‘A year from now Putin will have come to his senses’ are respectively analysed as ‘Something is such that it was the case that it is bothering me’ and ‘In a year’s time it will be the case that it was the case that Putin is coming to his senses’. Once tensed statements have been analysed in these ways, certain philosophical questions about time come into clearer view. Thus we can now ask the general question whether the present-tensed atoms of tense-logic are capable of being true simpliciter, so that the cross-temporal variation in their truth-value can rightly be seen as registering objective changes in reality itself. And we can likewise ask more specific questions such as: If something is presently the case, was it always going to be the case? If it once was the case that something is a certain way, is there now something that once was that way? If it is never going to be the case that p, is it therefore always going to be the case that not-p? Different answers to such philosophical questions motivate development of different tense-logical systems; and the course will be concerned to study both the metaphysical and the logical issues arising in this context.

A detailed programme will be distributed on the first day of class.