Facoltà di Economia

Prerequisites

Program

Books

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Teaching methods

Exam Rules

Aggiornato A.A. 2022-2023

Course Description

 Reasoning is the process of extracting useful consequences from some sort of preassigned background knowledge. Logic concerns itself with correct reasoning and so, specularly, with detecting fallacious arguments. Needless to say, logic proves fundamental in any intellectual arena, including economics and politics; It also provides the basic toolkit for reflecting upon the methodology of empirical sciences and the nature of scientific knowledge.

The course is organized in two parts. The first will serve as an introduction to both classical propositional logic and the predicate calculus. Students will learn how to 'extract' the logical structure of sentences expressed in the natural language by means of the formalization process. They will also be trained to analyze formalized sentences by computing truth-tables and applying the method of refutation trees. Special attention will be devoted to the notions of valid and sound argument.

In the second part, students will be introduced to some of the central topics in the philosophy of science. In particular, we will focus attention upon the problem of inductivism. After analyzing the most important types of inductive reasoning (simple induction, statistical syllogism, induction by analogy, generalizations), we will consider Russell's position about inductivism as well as Popper's criticism. We will finally dwell on the most salient aspects of Popper's falsificationism.

Find more information in the Syllabus reported below:

Aggiornato A.A. 2021-2022

Course description

Reasoning is the process of extracting useful consequences from some sort of preassigned background knowledge. Logic concerns itself with correct reasoning and so, specularly, with detecting fallacious arguments. Needless to say, logic proves fundamental in any intellectual arena, including economics and politics; It also provides the basic toolkit for reflecting upon the methodology of empirical sciences and the nature of scientic knowledge.

The course is organized in two parts. The first will serve as an introduction to both classical propositional logic and the predicate calculus. Students will learn how to 'extract' the logical structure of sentences expressed in the natural language by means of the formalization process. They will also be trained to analyze formalized sentences by computing truth-tables and applying the method of refutation trees. Special attention will be devoted to the notions of valid and sound argument.

In the second part, students will be introduced to some of the central topics in the philosophy of science. In particular, we will focus attention upon the problem of inductivism. After analyzing the most important types of inductive reasoning (simple induction, statistical syllogism, induction by analogy, generalizations), we will consider Russell's position about inductivism as well as Popper's criticism. We will finally dwell on the most salient aspects of Popper's falsificationism.

Aggiornato A.A. 2020-2021

Course description

Reasoning is the process of extracting useful consequences from some sort of preassigned background knowledge. Logic concerns itself with correct reasoning, and so, specularly, with detecting fallacious arguments. Needless to say, logic proves fundamental in any intellectual arena, including economics and politics. This course aims at producing well-trained critical thinkers able to put forward sound arguments as well as to rebut flawed ones.

The course is organized in two parts. The first will serve as an introduction to classical propositional logic. Students will learn how to 'extract' the logical structure of sentences expressed in natural language by means of the formalization process. They will be trained to analyze formalized sentences by computing truth-tables and applying the method of semantic tableaux. Special attention will be also given to the notions of valid and sound argument.

The second part of the course will be devoted to introducing some key topics in philosophy of science. In particular, we shall be dealing with the opposition between science and pseudo-science as well as with the distinction between deductive and inductive reasoning. Finally, we will also dwell on Karl Popper's falsificationisms, especially in the light of the criticism this theory has received from Thomas Kuhn.

Find more information in the Syllabus