Students interested in HPM@McGill are encouraged to take a look at the courses listed below, which are offered regularly in the Department of Philosophy.
PHIL 311 offers a general introduction to philosophy of mathematics. Specialized topics are offered in PHIL 411 and in the seminar PHIL 511. Most recently, PHIL 411 has covered the developments from Newton and Leibniz to Dedekind (including MacClaurin, Gauss, Bolzano, Frege), as well as Frege's Foundations of Arithmetic and its modern analyses by Wright, Boolos, etc.; PHIL 511 has covered Philosophy of Geometry (Winter 2013).
PHIL 311
Philosophy of Mathematics
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: This course provides an historically informed introduction to philosophy of mathematics. It gives the student an overview of prominent issues and arguments, to enable her to follow and discuss contemporary research in philosophy of mathematics.
Offered by: Philosophy
PHIL 411
Topics in Phil of Logic & Math
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: A course focusing on some philosophical issue (e.g., the nature of numbers or the relation of truth to provability) as it arises in the study of mathematics and logic.
Offered by: Philosophy
- Prerequisites: PHIL 210 or the equivalent, and one intermediate course in philosophy
PHIL 611
Sem: Phil of Logic & Math
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: Seminar on a particular topic in philosophy of logic and mathematics.
Offered by: Philosophy
- Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken PHIL 511.
In addition, History and Philosophy of Ancient Science also frequently covers mathematical topics:
PHIL 350
Hist & Phil of Ancient Sci
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: Topics in ancient pure mathematics (geometry and number theory), "mixed mathematics" (astronomy, music theory, optics, mechanics), and/or natural science (including medicine), studied with a view to philosophical issues raised by the content of ancient science and/or by the logic of scientific argument.
Offered by: Philosophy
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year
Depending on the instructor, PHIL 481 may also be of interest. As 'Mathematics in early modern philosophy' it covers the role of mathematics in the philosophical work of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz and Kant.
PHIL 481
Topics in Philosophy
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: Topics in philosophy. Topic varies by year.
Offered by: Philosophy
Related courses in other departments at McGill:
MATH 338
History & Philosophy of Math
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci): Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Indian and Arab contributions to mathematics are studied together with some modern developments they give rise to, for example, the problem of trisecting the angle. European mathematics from the Renaissance to the 18th century is discussed, culminating in the discovery of the infinitesimal and integral calculus by Newton and Leibnitz. Demonstration of how mathematics was done in past centuries, and involves the practice of mathematics, including detailed calculations, arguments based on geometric reasoning, and proofs.
Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics
See also ourses offered within the inter-faculty programs of
Logic
Logic is offered at various levels at McGill, e. g.,
PHIL 210
Intro to Deductive Logic 1
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: An introduction to propositional and predicate logic; formalization of arguments, truth tables, systems of deduction, elementary metaresults, and related topics.
Offered by: Philosophy
- Restriction: Not open to students who are taking or have taken MATH 318
PHIL 310
Intermediate Logic
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: A second course in Logic. NB. The course will be technical in nature, and some mathematical aptitude is essential. The emphasis is on the expressive properties of standard logical systems, including implications for the philosophy of mathematics. We will study the Completeness of First-Order Logic, then the 'limitative' theorems of Tarski and Gödel.
Offered by: Philosophy
PHIL 410
Course not available
PHIL 610
Seminar on Advanced Logic 2
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Philosophy: Seminar on a particular topic in advanced logic. Topic varies by year.
Offered by: Philosophy
- Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor .
- Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken PHIL 510.
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year
COMP 230
Logic and Computability
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Computer Science (Sci): Propositional Logic, predicate calculus, proof systems, computability Turing machines, Church-Turing thesis, unsolvable problems, completeness, incompleteness, Tarski semantics, uses and misuses of Gödel's theorem.
Offered by: Computer Science
- 3 hours
- Prerequisite: CEGEP level mathematics.
- Terms
- This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
- Instructors
- There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year
MATH 318
Mathematical Logic
3 Credits
Offered in the:
- Fall
- Winter
- Summer
Mathematics & Statistics (Sci): Propositional logic: truth-tables, formal proof systems, completeness and compactness theorems, Boolean algebras; first-order logic: formal proofs, Gödel's completeness theorem; axiomatic theories; set theory; Cantor's theorem, axiom of choice and Zorn's lemma, Peano arithmetic; Gödel's incompleteness theorem.
Offered by: Mathematics and Statistics
For more specialized topics, see also the Computation and Logic Group in the School of Computer Science.
Related courses in other departments in Montreal:
Students can also take courses at Concordia, Université de Montréal, and UQÀM.