When do data confirm a hypothesis or a theory? What do we do when several different hypotheses or theories are consistent with the data? When, if ever, is inductive inference justified? How are models related to what they model? When is reasoning good reasoning? Which conclusions can be inferred from which premises? How does it depend on what we are reasoning about: arithmetic, the physical world, what exists, what is possible, what is known? What are we saying when we say that something is likely or unlikely to occur? What are we saying when we say that one event caused another? Are we saying something about the world or merely something about us, about what we have observed and what we now expect?

From the lists shown below, students will select one course from the lower-division, and two courses from the upper-division. The lower division course is a required element of the Domain Emphasis.

Prerequisites are shown within square brackets.

Lower Division (select one)

  • L&S 22. Sense and Sensibility and Science (4 units)

  • MATH 55. Discrete Mathematics (4 units)

  • PHILOS 4. Knowledge and its Limits (4 units)

  • PHILOS 5. Science and Human Understanding (4 units)

  • PHILOS 12A. Introduction to Logic (4 units)

Upper Division (select two)

  • MATH 125A. Mathematical Logic (4 units) [Prerequisites: Math 104 and 133 or consent of instructor]

  • MATH 135. Introduction to the Theory of Sets (4 units) [Prerequisites: Math 104 and 133 or consent of instructor]

  • MATH 136. Completeness and Undecidability (4 units) [Prerequisites: Math 104 and 133 or consent of instructor]

  • PHILOS 122. Theory of Knowledge (4 units)

  • PHILOS 125. Metaphysics (4 units)

  • PHILOS 128. Philosophy of Science (4 units)

  • PHILOS 134. Form and Meaning (4 units) [Prerequisites: 8 units of philosophy courses and 12A or equivalent]

  • PHILOS 140A. Intermediate Logic (4 units)

  • PHILOS 140B. Intermediate Logic (4 units) [Prerequisite: Philos 12A or equivalent]

  • PHILOS 142. Philosophical Logic (4 units)

  • PHILOS 143. Modal Logic (4 units) [Prerequisite: Philos 12A or equivalent or consent of instructor]

  • PHILOS 146. Philosophy of Mathematics (4 units)

  • PHILOS 148. Probability and Induction (4 units)

  • PHILOS 149. Special Topics in Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics (4 units)

  • RHETOR 107. Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse (4 units)