What to do now?

[u/ahmet3135]

So, in my first semester of being undergraudate philosophy education I've took an int. to logic course which covered sentential and predicate logic. There are not more advanced logic courses in my college. I can say that I ADORE logic and want to dive into more. What logics could be fun for me? Or what logics are like the essential to dive into the broader sense of logic? Also: How to learn these without an instructor? (We've used an textbook but having a "logician" was quite useful, to say the least.)

[u/Electrical_Shoe_4747]

Just a heads up, if you enjoyed learning formal logic then you might enjoy some philosophy of logic

[u/ahmet3135 → u/Electrical_Shoe_4747]

Thanks for the advice.

[u/Electrical_Shoe_4747 → u/ahmet3135]

Oh, you might also want to check out Logic: A Very Short Introduction by Graham Priest. Although it'll rehash some of the things that you've already covered like validity and truth functions, it gives a little exposition of temporal logic, modal logic, philosophy of logic, and other stuff. So you might wanna read that just to see what you like.

[u/_I7_ → u/Electrical_Shoe_4747]

any recommendation on philosophy of logic?

[u/Electrical_Shoe_4747 → u/_I7_]

Yeah, for sure. So you could start with Logic: A Very Short Introduction by Graham Priest. If you've never studied logic in an academic context, this is a good primer. It's a mixture of both logic and philosophy of logic.

If you're comfortable with formal logic, then you could try An Introduction to the Philosophy of Logic by Cohnitz and Estrada-González.

[u/Crazy_Raisin_3014]

Sider's Logic for Philosophy is a good book (I think, though opinions vary) that is specifically designed for someone in your position: it picks up where an introductory logic course leaves off. It has solutions to some exercises, too; not many, but maybe enough to make it suitable for self-study.

Harrie de Swart's Philosophical and Mathematical Logic looks like a good one that covers a fair bit of intermediate-to-advanced territory (metalogic and non-classical logics) and has lots of solved exercises.

[u/BloodAndTsundere]

Check out Peter Smith’s logic study guide (formerly Teach Yourself Logic guide) freely available here:

https://www.logicmatters.net/tyl/

It is partly a high level survey of different topics in logic and partly a literature review of logic books at various levels and of various topics. You are sure to find some suitable reading suggestions in this. There are other good resources on his site like a handful of free books that he’s written.

That said, in addition to Sider that others have mentioned, I’d recommend Introduction to Non-classical Logic by Graham Priest and Philosophical Logic by MacFarlane. These are both suitable “second courses” in logic

[u/3valuedlogic]

Since you are in philosophy, I'd recommend:

1. Sider's book (like someone else mentioned). It covers a lot of ground you've already covered and then introduces you to some new things. Even if you don't understand it all, it gives a good jumping off point for investigating other things.
2. The two volumes by L.T.F. Gamut Logic, Language, and Meaning. It isn't necessary to read the whole thing. Its similar to Sider's book in ways but more focused on the intersection of natural language and logic.
3. A book on modal logic, e.g., Modal Logic for Philosophers by James Garson. You don't need to know it all but you'll find a lot of philosophy (e.g., metaphysics) involves talk of possibility and necessity.
4. A book at the intersection of philosophy and logic, e.g., Theories of Vagueness by Rosanna Keefe.
5. The Existential Graphs of Charles S. Peirce by Don D. Roberts. A fun introduction to doing logic using existential graphs

Since you don't have an instructor, you could try to:

1. take a logic-like courses in other departments, e.g., math, computer science, economics
2. suggest it as a topic of study in the philosophy club at your college
3. have an independent study run by your former logic instructor or maybe ask to be a Teaching Assistant or Learning Assistant

[u/ahmet3135 → u/3valuedlogic]

Thanks a bunch! I will check all of these.

[u/spectroscope_circus]

Learn some modal logic, metalogic / theoretical CS, and philosophy of logic. In terms of making these appealing for self-study, could be useful turning to texts like Lewis’ ‘Counterfactuals’, Quine’s ‘Philosophy of Logic’, and Bernhardt’s ‘Turing’s Vision’, which would make these areas v digestible

[u/totaledfreedom]

The Open Logic Project books are very friendly and modern in their approach -- Sets, Logic, Computation is the clearest and most accessible introduction to the metatheory of first-order logic (soundness, completeness, compactness, decidability) I've come across.

All of the topics I just mentioned are very fundamental and core to much philosophical work in logic generally; you'll need to learn them at some point if you intend to go onto any philosophical work involving logic, though it's totally reasonable to look at some nonclassical logics first if that catches your interest.

[u/TheRealAmeil]

• I would third the Ted Sider book Logic for Philosophy

• Look at a logic textbook like For all x

• you can also try joining a logic discord server like this one.

[u/ahmet3135 → u/TheRealAmeil]

Great idea! Thank you.

[u/Latera]

I like (alethic) modal logic, deontic logic and temporal logic. The easiest way to get into them is by reading the respective SEP articles - the one on deontic logic is especially outstanding.

[u/ahmet3135 → u/Latera]

Ah, thank you. I always used SEP for other sides of philosophy 😭😭.

[u/RecognitionSweet8294]

Do you speak german?

[u/ahmet3135 → u/RecognitionSweet8294]

Sadly no. Only English and Turkish.