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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Logic by Stanford University

4.4
stars
625 ratings

About the Course

This course is an introduction to Logic from a computational perspective. It shows how to encode information in the form of logical sentences; it shows how to reason with information in this form; and it provides an overview of logic technology and its applications - in mathematics, science, engineering, business, law, and so forth....

Top reviews

SC

Apr 30, 2018

Pros:

1.good contents

2.good exercises and interesting puzzles

3.good examples

Cons:

1.No video

2. need more examples

SM

Jan 18, 2018

excellent teaching, detailed analysis, interesting theories, mind blowing facts, all in all it was my best experience online

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1 - 25 of 140 Reviews for Introduction to Logic

By James R E

•

Mar 20, 2018

After I signed up and started the class, I was disappointed to see that there are only 2 video lectures for the entire program. After starting and going through the first week, I realized that I could just as well have checked a book out from the local library and gotten the same information. I was hoping for an instructor led course. I will look elsewhere - You Tube or EdX may have a more engaging course.

By Andrey K

•

Oct 4, 2018

since the Section 2.5 - Satisfaction and on it doesn`t score any passed lessons or assignements, there is always an error "Unfortunately due to an error, your score was not recorded."

By Marcin B

•

May 6, 2020

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank the people who prepared and placed this course on coursera. Not too many logic courses out there.

As for the course itself, it is basically a read only course. There are numerous graded assignments that exploit web-based tools and it all works fine. The lack of video lectures may be a little intimidating, but the reading material's quality makes up for this. What bothered me slightly though, is not enough formality in definitions and stated claims. I had tendency to get lost in the meaning of numerous abstract objects such as constants, literals, constant functions, terms, relations, sentences, free and non-free variables, contingency, validity, satisfiability, soundness, completeness, compactness....

What I learned from the course:

- Lookin at logic systems as systems of manipulating strings of literals according to pre-defined semantics. We started with proposition logic, went on to relational logic and Herbrand logic.

- Formal proof system such as the Fitch system and resolution.

Some things I have hoped to learn but did not:

- How did logic evolve throughout history and how did we arrive at the picture that is seen today?

- What are the main branches of modern logic and what are - in general - logic researchers preoccupied with?

- Since logic, as it was presented, boils down to performing semantical operations on a predefined scheme of literals, isn't there a general way to formalize this? It seems there should be a general notion of language consisting of an alphabet, syntax, semantics and a set of inference rules.

- Does mathematics boil down to manipulating strings of literals according to some rules? If so, can we have many valid mathematics based on different axioms and different semantical rules? For instance, what would be the consequence of dropping the axiom of choice?

- What are the implications of Gödel incompleteness theorems for math and for science in general? Do the imply that the Riemann hypothesis could be undecidable?

To summarize, this course was an entertaining adventure, but I completed it with seemingly more questions regarding logic the prior to starting the course. But maybe that is not so bad?

By joao d

•

Feb 23, 2019

While I did learn a great deal with this course, I feel like it's not well made. No videos is clearly a minus, but that's just a nitpick. The biggest problem are the graded exercises. Some of the fitch exercises are ridiculously complicated until you reach the last sessions, where you can literally just write the goal you want without even reading the exercise.

By Josh M

•

Sep 27, 2016

While the content of this course is interesting and well-structured, the way it's presented on Coursera has major problems.

As it stands, this is not really a Coursera course; it's simply a Coursera wrapper around some links to a third-party website. All of the things that make Coursera valuable - videos with inline quizzes, ability to download content, the exam format, peer assessment - are missing. In fact, having Coursera as a wrapper actually makes it more difficult to use, because additional clicks are required to access any resource, and nothing is accessible offline. If this course is to be offered on Coursera, it needs major rework to take advantage of the platform.

This is a real shame, because there is some great content here and obviously a lot of care has been taken to structure it carefully for the original Stanford course. For that reason, recommend using the Stanford web site directly.

By patrick b

•

Oct 20, 2016

probably a very interesting course, but the way of teaching looks very indigestible... no video and no real explanation or examples.

By Sean R

•

Apr 22, 2018

I cannot in good conscious give this course even remotely close to a good score. The information provided is "okay" at best for solving the problems. It's nothing special, but it does get the job done. Having said that, you're probably wondering why I would give this such a low score then?

The mathematical problems. The exercises are absolutely atrocious in their format, often resulting in highly un-intuitive methods needed to figure out how to submit your answers and needlessly clunky interfaces. It's absolutely unacceptable that I have to click on a different option to allow the assignment to register that I have finished my entry. Often times I'll find myself struggling simply to give an answer because the clicking process (for the Fitch system being the first example) to give the intended answer. This is exacerbated by the fact that when filling in problems. It expects EXACT answers including ensuring that you have kept the correct spacing as well with no ability to eliminate whitespace for your answers, resulting in a ton of confusion on whether you got an answer correct or incorrect based on the whims of the site itself.

Either make the problems simpler to answer, or have the answering format far less restrictive in this regard and more intuitive. I went through the first two weeks fine, but the later ones become incredibly irritating. To the point that I'm not finishing the course until these issues are fixed.

By Joseph D

•

Dec 30, 2016

The course surprised me. Initially, it seemed to be a review of very basic concepts from boolean algebra and propositional logic. But even with a strong background in math and CS I was challenged, and I learned new (and for me, applied) ideas about the underlying aspects of automated theorem provers and satisfiability provers.

By Diego A A

•

Apr 24, 2019

The name don't lie: this is a introduction. There're some funny examples and I recomend for those who that are beginners in Logic.

By Ovidio M M

•

Aug 18, 2017

This is an awesome course about logic that I totally recommend because it explains very fundamental concepts.

I suggest to integrate the contents into the Coursera platform, although the external tool is easy to use also.

I would be great if you published a continuation course which may include, for instance, the covered topics in more detail, FOL in depth, second and higher order logic, logic programming.

Thank you very much for offering us this course!

By Sergiu N

•

May 9, 2020

It was one of the hardest coursed I've ever done on courser, after my great ambition and the great work, I managed to finish this course,there were some moments where I thinked to I'll never finish this course,I learned a lot of new things and important! Thank you to all teachers for the work!

By Sixiang C

•

May 1, 2018

Pros:

1.good contents

2.good exercises and interesting puzzles

3.good examples

Cons:

1.No video

2. need more examples

By emre a

•

Apr 10, 2020

It is basically a series of slides. I would instead buy the book and read it. The exercises were good tough.

By Luis H C P

•

Jan 14, 2018

O curso de Introduction to Logic oferecido pela Stanford University é excelente! De fato ele não é um curso introdutório, vai muito além com uma abordagem completa sobre o assunto. Os exercícios são muito bons e ajudam a desenvolver habilidades analíticas. Com certeza é um curso que irei recomendar.

By Jaewoo S

•

Aug 21, 2018

This course was so helpful. I think I now understand the fundamentals of mathematical logic. I truly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in studying logic!

By Dr A A

•

Aug 12, 2022

Thanks to the teacher. I learnt a lot about Logic. It is a wonderful course. I love to study more. Once again thanks. Abdul

By Isaiah L

•

Jun 25, 2021

Everything just sends you to an external website. All it is, is reading walls of text.

By Dillon C

•

Oct 31, 2016

Week 4 does not give enough explanation or extra resources and makes it unable to complete the exercises.

By Chavdar P G

•

Aug 1, 2023

During a particularly tough time in my life, this course emerged as an unexpected lifesaver. The material is expertly crafted, full of comprehensive information and extremely appealing ( I have literally spend countless hours just revisiting and diving deeper into different areas of the material) . it's not just about dry facts - there are a lot of brain-teasing riddles, some of which are really challenging.

Moreover, the course goes beyond the basics, providing access to logic programs and proofs, valuable resources for the learners. In a nutshell, it's a fantastic introduction to the world of logic and I assume it’s a solid base for delving into AI-related topics.

My sincere gratitude goes out to all those who have poured their time and effort into the creation and development of this course. Truly, it's been a game-changer for me.

By AADITYA S 2

•

Jan 9, 2023

Goofy ahh course, will recommend 10/10

also please explain it better how to use placeholders in the Fitch Proof Checker, it took me 12 hrs to figure out that you have to use "[]" to introduce placeholders, that made me very angy

this is literally the dark souls of logic courses

overall good course, can i come to stanford now? (please OwO)

:D

By sachin m

•

Jan 19, 2018

excellent teaching, detailed analysis, interesting theories, mind blowing facts, all in all it was my best experience online

By Grace L

•

Jun 9, 2018

Good structure. Helped a lot with my university unit. It would be great if we can get sample solutions for our exercises.

By Joel D

•

Nov 6, 2021

Great intro to the topic. The instant feedback from the proof tools make them easy and fun to use.

By Nick R

•

Mar 15, 2018

Section 12 wasn't very clear, but everything else was great.

By Sandeep N

•

Jun 14, 2018

you will learn how to think like a mathematician