04161 - History of Logic

Learning outcomes

The course has two general goals. The first is to provide a basic introduction to the history of Western logic, from its inception in Ancient Greece to the emergence of modern mathematical logic. The second goal is to sketch the conceptual and historical background of recent research on a central concept of logic, namely, truth. At the end of the course you will have become familiar with the main stages in the development of Western logic and you will have gained an understanding of the problems and arguments that substantiate traditional debates on the nature and role of truth.

Course contents

Part One.An outline of the history of logic from its inception in Ancient Greece to the emergence of modern mathematical logic

Part Two.The concept of truth in twentieth century's philosophy of logic(Giorgio Volpe).

This part of the course covers the deflationary approach suggested by some passages of Gottlob Frege and Frank P. Ramsey and developed further by W.W.O. Quine and Paul Horwich, the classical correspondence theories of George E. Moore and Bertrand Russell, as well as Alfred Tarski's semantic conception.

Seminar: Ways of Logic & Forms of Science

Readings/Bibliography

Required reading:

Part One

G.T. Bagni, Elementi di storia della logica formale, Bologna: Pitagora 1997.

Excerpts from Aristotle, Bochenski, Kneale & Kneale, Mangione, Mignucci, Spade.

Part Two

G. Frege, Senso e significato, in Id., Senso, funzione e concetto. Scritti filosofici 1891-1897, ed. by C. Penco and E. Picardi, Roma-Bari: Laterza 2001, pp. 32-57.

G. Frege, Il Pensiero, in Id., Ricerche logiche, Milano: Guerini e Associati 1988, pp. 43-74.

F.P. Ramsey, Fatti e proposizioni, in Id., I fondamenti della matematica ed altri scritti di logica, Milano: Feltrinelli 1964, pp. 155-172.

B. Russell, Filosofia e scienza, Roma: Newton Compton 1972, ch. 7.

B. Russell, I problemi della filosofia, Milano: Feltrinelli 1959, ch. 12.

A. Tarski, La concezione semantica della verità e i fondamenti della semantica, in L. Linsky (ed.), Semantica e filosofia del linguaggio, Milano: Il Saggiatore 1969, pp. 25-74.

W.V.O. Quine, Logica e grammatica, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1981, ch. 1.

P. Horwich, Verità, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1994, ch. 1.

Further reading:

D. Davidson, Verità e interpretazione, il Mulino, Bologna 1994 (chs. 2 and 3).

W. Künne, Conceptions of Truth, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003 (chs. 2, 3, 4, and 6).

G. Volpe, Teorie della verità, Guerini e Associati, Milano 2005 (chs. 1, 3, 5 and 6).

G. Volpe, La verità, Carocci, Roma 2012 (chs. 1, 2, 4 and 5).

Teaching methods

Teaching will consist of a mixture of lectures (given on Tuesdays and Fridays) and cross-disciplinary seminars with invited experts and young researchers (held on Thursdays).

Assessment methods

Oral examination.

Teaching tools

Additional readings will be available for download at Giorgio Volpe's web site.

Office hours

See the website of Rossella Lupacchini

See the website of Giorgio Volpe