Welcome to our course ‘Logic: The language of truth’

How this all works

Over the next four weeks we will be exploring formal logic and its use as a tool to clarify and evaluate reasoning and arguments expressed in everyday language. We will present you with films and articles, plus thought-provoking questions and discussions for you to consider with the course team and your fellow learners. There will be additional materials you can work through if you want to enhance your learning further. There is also a short test at the end if you want to gain validation for what you have learned.

The course will be relevant to you if you’re interested in reasoning and debate (in any area, from law to science, from politics to religion, or just in general in everyday life). It will be of particular interest for those who want to engage with philosophy, logic, the study of language and meaning, or computing and AI.

Please note that active tutor facilitation is limited to the number of teaching weeks from when the course run started. Please do not therefore expect any further tutor engagement from beyond then, although you are very welcome to continue to work through the course materials in a self-directed fashion from that point.

Using FutureLearn

If this is the first time you have used FutureLearn, Welcome! You may find it useful to read the FAQ guide. You may also like to read this FutureLearn blog post even if you have used FutureLearn before, which explains about the in-course navigation. We also recommend reading five tips and tools for social learning on FutureLearn to get the most out of the interactive and social learning features of this course.

We hope you engage in discussions and comment on course materials which is an essential part of the learning experience. When contributing it is important that you follow the FutureLearn code of conduct and are respectful of your fellow learners.

You can also use the tools to ‘like’ the posts of others if you agree with what is being said or if you have found something particularly interesting or add your comments to an existing post if you want to develop those ideas further.

You can also click to filter the comments on a step to only see:

• Comments by people you are following
• The most-liked comments
• Your own comments

Follow others

To get the most out of the course, we would strongly suggest that you follow Professor Tom Stoneham and Dr Barry Lee who are lead educators on this course. To see Tom’s and Barry’s comments in your activity feed or when using the ‘following’ filter in discussions, visit Tom’s FutureLearn profile and Barry’s FutureLearn profile and click “follow”. Tom and Barry will be supported by Rob Trueman who will also be offering facilitation throughout the course.

Engage on social media

We have a hashtag — #FLYorkLogic — which you are more than welcome to use on social media to talk about the course and to find others who are talking about it too!

Evidence your learning

For anyone wishing to gain validation of their engagement with the course, details on requirements to be eligible for those at the completion of the course can be found within FutureLearn’s Guidance of Certificates and Statements. It’s worth building this into your study model at the very start, so do think about this as we enter the first week.

You may also like to consider FutureLearn’s Unlimited opportunity, which offers unlimited access to hundreds of courses each year.

Let’s get started!