PLEASE NOTE this is a sample reading list for the 2015-16 academic year
– precise seminar content may change from year to year.
 Readings: Our primary text will be
- First-order Modal Logic by Melvin Fitting and Richard Mendelsohn, Kluwer, 1999.
The following books are also recommended for additional reference
- Philosophical logic, J. Burgess, Princeton University Press 2009.
- Modal logic for philosophers, J. Garson, Cambridge, 2006.
- Modal logic, P. Blackburn, M.de Rijke and Y. Venema, Cambridge, 2001.
- Dynamic logic, D. Harel , D. Harel, and J. Tiuryn, MIT, 2000.
Additional readings will be made available by the module website.
 Assessment: The module will be assessed on the basis of either a two hour exam
or a 2500 word essay due during Term 3. There will be weekly unassessed problem
sets.
 Approximate schedule and readings
- Week 1
- Introduction: overview, syntax of propositional modal logic
- Readings: F&M chapter 1, “Modal Logic” in the SEP
- Week 2
- Kripke models
- Readings: F&M chapter 1, Burgess “Kripke models”
- Week 3
- Tableau systems for propositional modal logic
- Readings: F&M chapter chapter 2
- Week 4
- Axioms systems for propositional modal logic, soundness and completeness
- Readings: F&M chapter 3, Burgess chapter 3
- Week 5
- Applications of and questions about propositional modal logic
- Readings: “Epistemic Logic”, “Provability Logic” and “Temporal Logic” in the
SEP, “Which modal logic is the right one?” (Burgess)
- Week 6 READING WEEK (no lectures or seminar)
- Week 7
- First-order modal logic: syntax, semantics, proof theory
- Readings: F&M chapter chapter 4, 5, 6, “Intensional Logic” in the SEP
- Week 8
- Barcan formulae, equality in modal logic, possibility versus actualist quantification, modality and scope
- Readings: F&M chapters 7, 9, 10, 12
- Week 9
- Application of and questions about first-order modal logic
- Readings: “Dynamic Logic” in the SEP, Reading metaphysics: selected texts
chapter 5 (Beebee & Dodd), selections from Naming and necessity (Kripke),
“Three grades of modal involvement” (Quine)
- Week 10
- Review and catchup
Key: F&M = Fitting & Mendelsohn, SEP = http://plato.stanford.edu