The subject-matter of this course is rooted in the substance of intelligent behaviour and how it can be characterised and formulated in precise language. To this end, it contains a number of controversial concepts that are, at the same time, thought provoking. The subjects of “logic”, “artificial”, and “intelligence” have  continue to generate heated debates, individually and collectively, across diverse fields of study.  The principal theme of such argument is to interrogate the questions as to: (i) ``whether reasoning can be automated'' and (ii) If so, to what extent and with what instrument?

We shall engage the subject-matter of this course with the intention to broaden our horizon and understanding of concept of automated reasoning in the context of intelligence systems development. In this course, therefore, we shall be discussing a foundation issues in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it relates with the concepts and principles of the symbolic formulation of the human thought and reasoning processes. This is with the aim to precisely represent the processes and automate them as much as it is practically possible.

The fundamental assumption here is that, in principle at least,  aspects of the logic of problem solving  in the human reasoning processes are amenable to precise representation and hence mechanisation. This assumption presupposes that such task can be achieved by creating a definitive framework for contextualising, instantiating, codifying and manipulating abstract objects in the reasoning and though processes.