We will be starting this next topic in what may appear to be a very strange way—by studying some of the elements of logic as presented in philosophy courses.

Certainly no one would debate the fact that logic is of fundamental importance to science in general and physics in particular. Indeed, as mathematics is the tool of the physicist and logic is the foundation of mathematics, one could argue that logic runs throughout the very core of the study of physics.

In this lecture we will be introduced to some fundamental concepts in the study of logic.  We will then motivate the introduction of a symbolism to represent logical statements.  The purpose of the symbols will be to remove ambiguities in logical statements, and to allow us more fully to understand the structure of various statements.  This understanding will then allow us to progress with our study of logic in the next lecture, which will introduce us to some of the concepts of Boolean Algebra.