Symbolic Logic: Syntax, Semantics, And Proof

by David W. Agler

Brimming with visual examples of concepts, derivation rules, and proof strategies, this introductory text is ideal for students with no previous experience in logic. Symbolic Syntax, Semantics, and Proof introduces students to the fundamental concepts, techniques, and topics involved in deductive reasoning. Agler guides students through the basics of symbolic logic by explaining the essentials of two classical systems, propositional and predicate logic. Students will learn translation both from formal language into English and from English into formal language; how to use truth trees and truth tables to test propositions for logical properties; and how to construct and strategically use derivation rules in proofs. This text makes this often confounding topic much more accessible with step-by-step example proofs, chapter glossaries of key terms, hundreds of homework problems and solutions for practice, and suggested further readings.

Genres: Philosophy

375 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Sara Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the textbook for a course I was taking at Penn State. It was painfully complicated and confusing, even with the solutions to practice equations included. I struggled with the course until I went to YouTube and found videos by author David Agler. Watching the videos helped me better understand the content of the book and pass the course with an 89%, and since my professor graded on a curve I ended up with an A. Couldn't have done it without the YouTube videos though.

[Sarana · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first four chapters made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I could dominate this symbolic logic class. And then the fifth chapter rolled around and I was lost. The fact the “math” is called symbolic logic has irony, as there is no logic at all to be had in these “calculations.” If there is anything I have learned from this book, it’s that I despise symbolic logic entirely.

[Διόνυσος Ελευθέριος · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agler's Symbolic Logic: Syntax, Semantics, and Proof, largely an excellent introductory textbook on symbolic logic, is in much need of a second edition. Its merits include the vast number of exercises in each chapter and subchapter, and its often very good explanations. Some of its faults include some glaring and confusing typographical errors, and its relatively very poor discussions of the hardest areas of symbolic logic, namely, predicate logic. Those late chapters are far, far too short, even for an introductory textbook. Especially lacking is a carefully elaborated account of multiple quantifiers in predicate logic. So many students had such great difficulty with this. It would have been better to have left that out altogether rather than to have given it the insufficient treatment that it received here. Nevertheless, on the whole, it's a good textbook.