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Course Description

Summary

This introductory course should be of interest to students planning additional study in mathematics as well as those wanting looking for a mathematics course of more general interest. The topics and skills covered in this class will be fundamental in all advanced mathematics classes and may therefore be used as a prerequisite for Calculus A and Linear Algebra. The class should also be of interest to students of philosophy, and to anyone seeking to improve their ability to reason and form clear arguments. No background in mathematics is assumed. Topics will include symbolic logic and rules of inference; how to write mathematical proofs; the beginnings of abstract algebra, including Boolean algebras; extensions of high school polynomial algebra; and set theory, including the theory of infinite sets. There will be a brief introduction to the successes of Hilbert’s formalism program, and its limitations in Gödel’s theorems.