Deductive Logic

by Warren Goldfarb

This text provides a straightforward, lively but rigorous, introduction to truth-functional and predicate logic, complete with lucid examples and incisive exercises, for which Warren Goldfarb is renowned.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Mathematics, College, Logic

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Moffi · Rating 4 out of 5]

autism score +1

[Bukhtiyar]

good
better

[Marty LaFleur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book on deductive logic, focusing on truth-functional logic, existential and absolute quantifiers, quantification theory, and identity. I found the book (particularly the first half) very interesting and understandable. The second half was much denser and would have required me to significantly slow down and engage with other resources to take in the content fully. I had purchased this book for a class which I never wound up taking-I can imagine when used as a reference textbook all of the sections would be very understandable. In addition, the author provides exercises at the end to further reinforce the concepts.

[Jack Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realized I never put this on Goodreads. Shoutout Prof Riki his logic class was one of my favorites

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traumatic reading inflicted on me by a Logic class. But now it is very helpful for doing logic so hurray.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Clearly, whether or not the conclusion of an argument logically follows from the premises is not simply a matter of the truth or falsity of the premises and conclusion. Rather, as we shall see in detail, the correctness of the argument depends on the form of the statements that make up the argument: the way those statements are constructed from smaller parts, some of which will occur multiply in those statements."

For the most part, Goldfarb's introductory treatment of symbolic logic maintains its clarity even as it delves deeper into the subject matter. My biggest problem with this text is that it offers no solutions for the sample problems presented in the back. Practice problems are considerably more useful when you can check your work. That's why we have teachers, I suppose.

[D. E. Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent introduction to deductive logic. Goldfarb writes with great clarity and precision. He takes no short cuts in not only walking you through the processes involved in simple propositional logic, but complex quantification theories as well.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok honestly i didn't finish this, but am marking as read because it's been in my "currently reading" for a whole year.

this is a really solid textbook, but is incredibly dry, especially from a mathematical perspective.

[Ft. Sheridan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never again.