Intro to Formal Logic 2?

I’m mulling over a proposal that I write a second edition of my Introduction to Formal Logic, first published thirteen years ago by CUP.


I’m tempted. I’m sure I could make a very much better job of it. Though, of course, I’m only too aware of how time consuming it would be to undertake, and I’d also like to crack on e.g. with the Gentle Introduction to category theory (which has been going slowly of late).


If I do write a second edition, I’d like to include chapters on natural deduction (Fitch-style, I think, for user-friendliness). But I wouldn’t want the book to get too unwieldy in length — and CUP wouldn’t let it! — so some stuff would also have to go. But I guess I could put online some of the current content that goes beyond a usual first logic course (e.g. the completeness proofs for trees for PL and QL!). Would that be a win-win solution? — a tighter book, with the stuff on natural deduction some people wanted, but with the “extras” still available for the small number of real enthusiasts?


I haven’t decided yet whether to take up the proposal, let alone how to reshape and add to the text if I do go with it. But any advice and suggestions (either here, or in emails, address at the end of the About page) — especially from those who have used the first edition or indeed, perhaps even better, from those who decided not to use it — will be very gratefully received!

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Published on June 10, 2016 00:21
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