This was a really technical class that I think I could’ve benefited a lot more from by going to the tutorials and applying the logic learnt in the lectures. Logic is about how you can prove certain statements to be true or false using the statements themselves aka reasoning (please don’t reem me for this definition! haha). I think the class was very well structured but it is quite hard for a second level subject. I’ve forgotten many of the intricacies of how to do truth trees and truth tables since studying it but I think if went over some of the material again I could pick it up pretty fast. I think this is probably an essential subject if you want to major/do an honours in philosophy, because it just gets used everywhere and knowing some introductory logic really makes a lot of papers that you read more comprehensible. The bonus is – there’s no readings! Can’t testify to how hard the quizzes are though. We covered propositional logic, modal logic, predicate logic and a little fuzzy logic. I definitely recommend seeking out some supplementary material to explain things in different ways if you don’t fully understand them in lectures. One really good youtube channel I found that goes over the rules of different logical proofs is Attic Philosophy, they have a really good backcatalogue of videos to check out.

Anonymous, Semester 1, 2025

I never wanted to take this subject, as I was convinced I wasn't going to enjoy formal logic nor be any good at it. Due to the structure of my degree, however, it was the only elective I could take to finish my Philosophy major -- how cruel!? Well, despite my begrudgingly enrolling in it, it turned out to be one of the best subjects I did during my time as an undergraduate. Tristan, the lecturer, is extremely engaging and easy to follow, and is exceptionally good at explaining logical principles and concepts. The 2 hour lecture format is surprisingly great, and I found myself always walking away from them thinking 'how cool was that!?'. Content-wise, the course covers a fair bit of ground. It starts off with an introduction to classical propositional logic, a soundness proof for propositional logic, and some propositional modal logic. In the middle of the course, temporal, modal, and predicate logics are covered. These middle bits were so fun. The course ends by considering the implications of vagueness on logics via several famous paradoxes. This is by far the hardest bit of the course, but is really fun thinking about! The assignments are also really manageable, with four short problem sets distributed across the semester, totalling 50% of the subject grade. Then there are two longer assignments each worth 25% of the subject grade, which are much harder and require a lot more creativity to solve. Overall, this is an excellent subject and I recommend it to anyone who likes problem-solving, Philosophy-major or otherwise.

Anonymous, Semester 1, 2023

This course is now called Logical Methods. Logical Methods was enjoyable, provided one keep up. It provided an excellent introduction to propositional, modal and predicate logic. This course is excellent organised and modulised by Greg Restall on the LMS, and tuition primarily takes the form of watching the videos for each module, reading the accompanying notes and attending the weekly seminar, which were engaging due to Greg’s constant use of polls. Assessment is split 60% on online multiple-choice quizzes and two projects (20% each). This is well split, as it ensures one is quite likely to pass, though will have to put effort in to achieve a high mark. Greg very kindly makes himself available for 15 minutes after class to field questions, though promotes an air of calculating the probable destination of your question as you say it and is liable to jump in and answer it as soon as that critical point has been reached (usually about 80% of the way through). I recommend this class to anyone who is interested in Logic, especially those studying philosophy.

Anonymous, Semester 2, 2020