The syllabus for this course describes what I expect from you and how the class will proceed. If there are any discrepancies between what appears on the website and what appears in the publish syllabus, the syllabus always takes precedence.

Grading: Standard 10 point scale

Weighting: The sole basis for your grade in this course is: (i) preparation and participation in our weekly meetings; and (ii) a moderate sized project. I do not take attendance, but it’s pretty difficult to hide. You will be asked to lead discussion one or more times during the semester and there will be several very small projects.

Homework: Some preparation for class will be required each week. You may be asked to take charge of the discussion from time to time, but never alone.

Projects: You may be asked to do several small experimental programming, mathematical, or composition projects. These will be discussed extensively in class, but will rarely if ever be rigorously graded. What you are asked to do will reflect the area of study you feel most comfortable with.

You will be asked to do a moderate sized project towards the end of the semester. The structure and topic of this project will largely depend on what you want to study further. More details will be provided as the course progresses.

Topics: The following list represents probable course topics. Specific topics are subject to change without notice.
  • Formal Systems
    • Semantics
      ⁃ Inference system
  • Formal languages
    • Grammars
  • Semantics
    • Operational semantics
      ⁃ Static vs. dynamic semantics
  • Inference Systems
    • Inference rules
  • Math, Music and Language
    • Music as a formal system
      ⁃ Languages as formal systems
  • A Bit of History
    • The Formalists and Proof
      ⁃ Hilbert’s “program” of challenge problems
      ⁃ Goedel’s incompleteness proof and the end of the Formalists
      ⁃ Turing’s machines
      ⁃ Church’s functions
      ⁃ Chompsky’s wonderfully successful failure