Philosophy 270, Fall 2005: topics for test 2
The following are the topics to be covered. The proportion of the test covering each will approximate the proportion of the classes so far that have been devoted to that topic. Your homework and the collection of old tests will provide specific examples of the kinds of questions I might ask.
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Definitions of basic concepts. Be able to state (in terms of possible worlds and truth values) the conditions under which sentences are mutually exclusive, jointly exhaustive, or contradictory and also the conditions under which the relation of relative exhuastiveness holds between sets.
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Analysis. Be able to analyze the logical form of a sentence as fully as possible using negation and disjunction in addition to conjunction and present the form in both symbolic and English notation (that is, with the logical and symbol and by expressing forms using
both
... and
, etc.).
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Derivations. Be able to construct derivations to show that entailments hold and to show that they fail. I may tell you in advance whether an entailment holds or leave it to you to check that using derivations. There will be at least one derivation where detachment and attachment rules may be used and where they will shorten the proof. But there will be other derivations where you must rely on others rules, either because detachment and attachment rules do not apply or because I tell you not to use them.