GST 2112 units200 LevelFirst Semester

Philosophy, Logic and Human Existence

B.Sc. Data Science, University of Uyo

Philosophical method, formal logic, and the perennial questions about knowledge, value and human existence. The logic half is directly technical — it is the same propositional calculus you will formalise in MTH 212 and implement in code.

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  • 2 recommended textbooks
  • an AI tutor that has read this course’s outline and notes
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Course outline

  1. 01The meaning, scope and branches of philosophy
  2. 02Philosophy and logic: the nature of argument, premises and conclusions
  3. 03Deductive and inductive reasoning; validity, soundness and cogency
  4. 04Symbolic logic: propositions, connectives, truth tables and truth-functional analysis
  5. 05Rules of inference and methods of proof
  6. 06Informal fallacies: ad hominem, straw man, false cause, hasty generalisation, appeal to authority
  7. 07Epistemology: sources and limits of knowledge; scepticism
  8. 08Ethics: consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics
  9. 09Human existence, freedom, determinism and the meaning of life

Recommended textbooks

  • Philosophy and Logic: An Introduction — Various UniUyo GST course team

    Use the departmental text — the exam follows it closely

  • A Concise Introduction to Logic — Patrick J. Hurley

    13th ed. — the best treatment of truth tables and fallacies

How to pass GST 211

  • Truth tables are free marks — practise until you can build one for any compound proposition without hesitating
  • The fallacies section is the most examined: learn each one with a one-line example you invented yourself, not the textbook's
  • Statistical reasoning is inductive; understanding why induction can never give certainty makes DTS 224 hypothesis testing click
  • For essay questions, define your terms in the first paragraph — examiners reward it explicitly

Other 200 Level courses

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