Week 1Okay. We are on our way! The course begins now. On Tuesday, we will have an introductory lecture on the subject matter of the course and course logistics. On Thursday, we will have an introduction to Propositional Logic. Lesson 1 is just an overview, and it is easy. That said, you should not shortchange the material. The lesson talks about the main ideas of Logic and how they relate to each other, and it provides a framework for organizing the rest of the material in the course. Lesson 2 introduces the syntax and semantics of Propositional Logic as well as the essential concepts of evaluation and satisfaction. You should get comfortable with the language and you should get comfortable evaluating sentences and finding truth assignments that satisfy those sentences. Be sure to do the online exercises. This week's exercises are easy. They are there mostly for you to get experience with the technology so that you will be ready to deal with the exercises and quizzes to come. However, the exercises become more difficult as the course progresses, and they are good preparation for the questions on the course quizzes. (Hint. Hint.) You should also drop by Ed Discussion to check out what others in the class are saying. There are some subtleties in Logic that you can miss and that can lead to confusion. Communicating with others on the Ed Discussion forum is a good way to deal with these subtleties. And, even if you think you understand everything, you might consider using Ed Discussion to help others and thus consolidate your understanding of the issues. Finally, you should check out the puzzles. There are fifteen of these in all, one per lesson. Some of the puzzles (like the first) are extremely easy; others are more difficult; and one is very hard. The puzzles are not a required part of the course. However, in the past, students have found them worthwhile and enjoyable. Also, your work on the more difficult puzzles may earn you discretionary credit. Note from CGOE for those of you attending lectures in Gates: Video cameras located in the back of the room will capture the instructor presentations in this course. For your convenience, you can access these recordings by logging into Canvas. These recordings might be reused in other Stanford courses, viewed by other Stanford students, faculty, or staff, or used for other education and research purposes. Note that while the cameras are positioned with the intention of recording only the instructor, occasionally a part of your image or voice might be incidentally captured. If you have questions, please contact a member of the teaching team. Welcome
CS 157 is a rigorous introduction to Symbolic Logic from a computational perspective. It focusses on the encoding of information in the form of logical sentences; it covers various methods for reasoning with information represented in this form; and it provides an overview of logic technology and its applications (in mathematics, science, engineering, business, law, and so forth). Topics include the syntax and semantics of Propositional Logic, Relational Logic, and Term Logic, validity, contingency, unsatisfiability, logical equivalence, entailment, consistency, direct deduction (Hilbert), natural deduction (Fitch), refutation reasoning (Resolution), mathematical induction, reasoning with equality, compactness, soundness, completeness. The course is divided into three main sections - Propositional Logic, Relational Logic, Term Logic (Logic with function symbols). See the table below for a tentative schedule of lessons, quizzes, and reviews.
This year, the lectures will take place in Gates B1 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30 to 2:50. There will be in-person office hours with the teaching staff. Times and locations will be posted on this page when they are finalized. All of the materials for the course are online. Click on the "Lessons" tab at the top of this page to access these materials. There are links to textbook chapters, lecture slides, interactive exercises, puzzles, and sundry other items. Note that, as you proceed through the online materials, you may occasionally encounter technical problems. Apologies in advance if this happens to you. We are constantly working on the course. You may get extra credit for reporting such problems (especially if your reports are more constructive than irate). Collaboration with your fellow students is acceptable and strongly encouraged. Feel free to discuss the subject matter and the problems either directly or using Ed Discussion. Our experience has shown that it is useful for students to work together to understand the material of the course and to solve problems. That said, you are expected to do quizzes in this course on your own; and you are responsible for understanding and being able to explain your answers. Your grade for the course will be based on your scores on three online quizzes - one on Propositional Logic, one on Relational Logic, and one on Term Logic. The first quiz will count for 40% of your grade; the second will count for 30%; and the third quiz will count for 30%. We will also award a few points of extra credit based on discretionary factors, such as class attendance, participation in the Forum, and work on the puzzles. As preparation for the quizzes, we highly recommend that you review the online exercises, as the problems on the quizzes will closely resemble these exercises. In the past, we have offered an optional final for those who wish to make up for weak performance on the quizzes. We will almost certainly do the same this year.
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