Japanese version of this article
Introduction to Logic was one of the classes offered at Hokkaido Summer Institute 2016. It was held for 5 days from July 25th to July 29th.
This class was given both as an introductory class for students wishing to learn logic from the very beginning, and also as a basic training course for students who took the “Dynamic Epistemic Logic” class in the following week. One characteristic of this class is that, because logical thinking is a desirable skill in both the humanities and the sciences, there were more students from scientific backgrounds when compared to other courses offered by the faculty of letters.
The main instructor of this course
Classes were given in lecture form, and seeing the students listening attentively to the lecture left quite an impression. On the final day, oral exams were held. It would seem as though all the students who overcame their nerves and successfully completed a 1 on 1 exam with the professor were able to attain a great sense of satisfaction afterward.
According to the surveys, several students found this introductory course difficult, due to the need to use logical symbols and technical terms. Yet, to the question of whether or not they were stimulated by the class, over 60% of students responded by saying they either were stimulated or were very stimulated. We can thus say that this was a class which called forth student’s intellectual curiosity found in this difficult content.
