‘Philosophy is thinking in slow motion.’ (John Campbell)
This course is about logical validity; there is also a sister notion, logical truth.
To say that a sentence is logically true is to say that there's no possible situation in which it is false.
(This is slightly different from the definition given in the textbook, but it's equivalent in that the two definitions pick out the same sentences.)
In exploring the notions of logical validity and logic truth, we are exploring the limits of
the world. One reason for studying logic is just that you are curious about what is
possible.
‘Logic pervades the world: the limits of the world are also its limits.’
(Wittgenstein, Tractatus 5.61)
On his album game theory, Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) mentions people of whom it is said that they
‘don’t obey no laws, not even gravity’
(Tariq Trotter, Game Theory track 10)
(The context:
‘I couldn't tell you why I think they constantly after me
Maybe it's cause the news put it to me so graphically
How niggaz don't obey no laws, not even gravity boy’)
Why study logic? It is easy to escape supply and demand--that law applies only to
rational agents,
and we are none of us entirely rational.
It is slightly harder to escape gravity, which was
thought to apply to all physical things although Tariq Trotter claims to have done it
on Game Theory (Livin’ in a New World).
The laws of logic are fundamental in the sense that
absolutely everything is subject to them, even musicians.
After I heard Game Theory I
tried to get the philosophy department to put Tariq forward for an honourary doctorate
so that he could call himself *DR* Black Thought but in the end they gave it to
Professor Peacocke instead.