Course Policies
Table of contents
About
Modal logic began as the study of different sorts of modalities, or modes of truth: alethic (it is necessarily true that''), epistemic (it is known that’’), deontic (it ought to be the case that''), temporal (it has always been the case that’’), among others. By now, modal logic has become a broad area of research, forming a sort of lingua franca between many disciplines, especially philosophy, computer science, economics, and linguistics.
The course covers core concepts and basic metatheory of propositional modal logic, including relations to first-order logic; the basics of quantified modal logic; and selected applications of modal logic. Topics that may be discussed (the final choice of topics may be adapted to fit students’ interests) include (dynamic) epistemic/doxastic logic, conditional logic, non-normal modal logics, logics of action and agency, temporal logics, and applications of modal logic in game theory. Students will come away from this course with a working knowledge of modal logic and its use in philosophy, computer science and game theory.
Resources
Piazza: This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from me and your classmates. Rather than emailing questions to me, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza (it is available on the course website).
Gradescope: We will use Gradescope for your weekly problem sets. You should access Gradescope through the ELMS website. You have already been added to the Gradescope gradebook.
Weekly Schedule/Due Dates
The tentative weekly schedule:
- Each Monday, information about the tutorial questions for the week, the problem sets, updates to the course website, updates to the online notes, and updates to the weekly schedule will be announced using the ELMS announcement page.
- In-person lectures on Mondays and Wednesdays 3:00pm - 4:15pm in JMZ 0122.
- Throughout the week, use Piazza to ask questions about the problem sets, reading or lectures, or anything else you might want to discuss related to the course.
- Submit your weekly question(s)/comment(s) on Piazza by Tuesday at 11pm.
- Problem sets will be due on Fridays at 11pm.
- Tutorial questions will be discussed in class, but should be attempted at home.
Course Requirements
The course requirements are:
Tutorials: There will be a number of tutorials containing questions that will be discussed during the lectures. These are low-stakes problems designed to give students a chance to practice with the concepts introduced in the lectures. Many of the questions and answers will be discussed during the lectures, and students are encouraged to discuss the questions with fellow students. Most of the tutorials will be automatically graded and students will have multiple chances to correct their answers to these problems.
Questions: You must submit a weekly question/comment on Piazza. This could be a question about something that you did not understand in the reading or lectures, a question or topic that you would like to discuss in more detail during the lectures, or some general comments you have about the material we are discussing that week. You can also report on a question that you raised during a lecture and the answer that was discussed. Questions for the week must be submitted by Tuesday at 11pm. Students will receive 1 point for each substantive question that is asked during the semester on Piazza. The grade for the weekly questions will be out of 12, so to receive full credit, you must ask 12 substantive questions during the semester (roughly 1 question per week). You will receive extra credit for any question asked beyond the 12 points for a maximum of 20 points.
Problem Sets: There will be approximately 5 problem sets assigned this semester. Problem sets will be submitted through Gradescope (accessible through the course website). You can use your notes, the readings, and the online textbook, but you should not discuss your answers with your classmates or use any AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to answer these questions.
Exams: There will be two exams this semester:
- Midterm Exam: The midterm exam will be online and is tentatively scheduled for the week of October 16-20. Consult the course website for more information about the midterm exam.
- Final Exam: The final will be cumulative (though more emphasis on material after the midterm exam) and given as an online exam during finals week. Consult the course website for more information about the final exam.
Late Policy
There will be weekly tutorial questions assigned. You will have more than one chance to answer the questions, and we will discuss the answers during class.
Approximately 5 Problem sets will be assigned over the semester. The penalty for late problem sets is as follows:
- Problem sets submitted less than 48 hours after the due date (so, before Sunday at 11pm): no late penalty
- Problem sets submitted after Sunday at 11pm and before class on Monday: assignments will be graded, and a small late penalty may be applied (1% - 10% of the total number of points may be deducted).
- Problem sets submitted after class on Monday (without a valid excuse): the problem set will be lightly graded, and you will receive at most 1/2 the total points for the assignment.
Late exams will not be accepted (unless you contact me in advance to ask for a valid extension).
Grades
Grades will be assigned according to the following weights:
| Activity | Percent |
|---|---|
| Participation | 30% |
| Problem Sets | 40% |
| Midterm Exam | 15% |
| Final Exam | 15% |
See undergraduate catalogue for description of grades, e.g., A+, A, A-, etc.
Support
It’s expected that some aspects of the course will take time to master, and the best way to master challenging material is to ask questions. For online questions, use Piazza.
UMD has many resources available to help students. Below are links to some resources that you might find helpful.