[FOM] Logic packages

[Jesse Alama]

Jesse Alama <alama at stanford.edu> writes:

> Thomas Forster <T.Forster at dpmms.cam.ac.uk> writes:
>
>> Do list members have any favourite computer aids for teaching logic to 
>> undergraduates?  I have been using JAPE, which has many virtues, but it 
>> does have the disadvantage that it supports Kalish-Montague-style box 
>> proofs - which is something i am trying to wean my bairns off.
>
> There is a long tradition of the use of computers to assist logic
> education at Stanford, going back (at least) to Pat Suppes.  Currently,
> one undergraduate course (PHIL 50 "Introductory Logic") and one mixed
> graduate-undergraduate course (PHIL 150 "Basic Concepts in Mathematical
> Logic"), given three times per academic year, are based on Jon Barwise
> and John Etchemendy's _Language, Proof and Logic_
> (http://lpl.stanford.edu).  The package is currently maintained by a
> team within Stanford's CSLI (Center for the Study of Language and
> Information).  The Barwise and Etchemendy book makes extensive use of
> three computer programs:
>
> * Boole: evaluate propositional formulas;
>
> * Tarski's World: build simple first-order structures and evaluate
>   sentences in them;
>
> * Fitch: construct first-order Fitch-style natural deduction
>   proofs.
>
> In addition, the Barwise-Etchemendy LPL framework includes programs with
> which students can submit their work to dedicated servers and be
> evaluated; the evaluations are sent to them by email (and optionally to
> an instructor or teacher's assistant).
>
> Is this the kind of computer teaching aid that you had in mind?

FYI: the logic software that I mentioned is not freely available, unlike
(for example) JAPE.  To obtain the LPL software, one must obtain a copy
of the _Language, Proof and Logic_ book, which comes with a CD
containing binaries of the Boole, Tarski's World, and Fitch programs for
Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Jesse

-- 
Jesse Alama (alama at stanford.edu)