Tarski's World

by Barker-Plummer, Dave; Barwise, Jon; Etchemendy, John; Liu, Albert (COL)

• ISBN13: 9781575864846
• ISBN10: 1575864843
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-15
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Center for the Study

Summary

Tarski's Worldis an innovative and exciting method of introducing students to the language of first-order logic. Using the courseware package, students quickly master the meanings of connectives and qualifiers and soon become fluent in the symbolic language at the core of modern logic. The program allows students to build three-dimensional worlds and then describe them in first-order logic. The program, compatible with Macintosh and PC formats, also contains a unique and effective corrective tool in the form of a game, which methodically leads students back through their errors if they wrongly evaluate the sentences in the constructed worlds. A brand new feature in this revised and expanded edition is student access to Grade Grinder, an innovative Internet-based grading service that provides accurate and timely feedback to students whenever they need it. Students can submit solutions for the program's more than 100 exercises to the Grade Grinder for assessment, and the results are returned quickly to the students and optionally to the teacher as well. A web-based interface also allows instructors to manage assignments and grades for their classes. Intended as a supplement to a standard logic text,Tarski's Worldis an essential tool for helping students learn the language of logic.

Author Biography

Dave Barker-Plummer is senior research scientist with the Openproof Project at the Center for the Study of Language and Information John Etchemendy is professor of philosophy and symbolic systems at Stanford University and a former director of CSLI Albert Liu is a software developer at CSLI

Table of Contents

How to Use This Book	p. xi
To the student	p. xii
To the instructor	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xv
What's new in this edition?	p. xv
More acknowledgements	p. xvi
Exercises
Instructions About the Exercises	p. 3
Exercises on Propositional Logic	p. 9
Exercises on First-order Logic	p. 25
More Theoretical Exercises	p. 53
Using the Software
Using Tarski's World	p. 67
Getting started	p. 67
Opening saved files	p. 68
Starting new files	p. 68
Saving a file	p. 68
Closing Tabs	p. 69
Reverting a File	p. 69
Printing	p. 70
Quitting (Exiting) Tarski's World	p. 70
The World Panel	p. 70
Adding blocks	p. 70
Selecting blocks	p. 70
Moving blocks	p. 70
Sizing and shaping blocks	p. 70
Naming blocks	p. 71
Deleting blocks	p. 71
Cutting, copying, and pasting blocks	p. 71
Hiding labels	p. 72
2-D view	p. 72
Rotating Worlds	p. 72
The Sentence Panel	p. 72
Writing formulas	p. 72
Commenting your sentences	p. 73
Creating a list of sentences	p. 73
Moving from sentence to sentence	p. 73
Deleting sentences	p. 74
Typing symbols from the keyboard	p. 74
Cutting, copying, and pasting	p. 75
Verifying syntax and truth	p. 75
Playing the game	p. 76
Picking blocks and sentences	p. 76
Backing up and giving up	p. 76
When to play the game	p. 77
Preferences	p. 78
Using Submit	p. 81
Getting started	p. 81
Choosing files to submit	p. 83
How you know your files were received	p. 85
Saving your user data	p. 85
Appendixes
First-order Logic	p. 89
First-order languages	p. 89
Individual constants	p. 90
Predicate symbols	p. 90
Atomic sentences	p. 91
Connectives	p. 92
Variables	p. 95
Atomic wffs	p. 96
Quantifiers	p. 96
Wffs and sentences	p. 97
Satisfaction and truth	p. 100
Game rules	p. 101
Logical equivalences	p. 103
Validity and logical consequence	p. 104
Using Tarski's World 5.x	p. 107
Getting started	p. 107
Launching Tarski's World	p. 107
The main windows	p. 107
Opening saved files	p. 109
Starting new files	p. 110
Saving a file	p. 110
Quitting (Exiting) Tarski's World	p. 110
The world window	p. 111
Adding blocks	p. 111
Naming blocks	p. 111
Moving blocks	p. 111
Sizing and shaping blocks	p. 112
Deleting blocks	p. 112
Hiding labels	p. 112
2-D view	p. 112
Rotating Worlds	p. 113
The keyboard and sentence windows	p. 113
Writing formulas	p. 113
Commenting your sentences	p. 114
Creating a list of sentences	p. 114
Moving from sentence to sentence	p. 114
Deleting sentences	p. 115
Typing symbols from the keyboard	p. 115
Cutting, copying, and pasting	p. 116
Printing	p. 116
The evaluation box / sentence inspector	p. 116
Verifying syntax and truth	p. 116
Playing the game	p. 117
Picking blocks and sentences	p. 118
Backing up and giving up	p. 118
When to play the game	p. 119
General Index	p. 121
File Index	p. 125
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.