Simple Formal Logic: With Common-Sense Symbolic Techniques

by Arnold vander Nat

Perfect for students with no background in logic or philosophy, Simple Formal Logic provides a full system of logic adequate to handle everyday and philosophical reasoning. By keeping out artificial techniques that aren’t natural to our everyday thinking process, Simple Formal Logic trains students to think through formal logical arguments for themselves, ingraining in them the habits of sound reasoning. Simple Formal Logic features: This book arose out of a popular course that the author has taught to all types of undergraduate students at Loyola University Chicago. He teaches formal logic without the artificial methods–methods that often seek to solve farfetched logical problems without any connection to everyday and philosophical argumentation. The result is a book that teaches easy and more intuitive ways of grappling with formal logic–and is intended as a rigorous yet easy-to-follow first course in logical thinking for philosophy majors and non-philosophy majors alike.

Genres: Philosophy, Logic

360 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[Anartam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good introduction to Logic. The first two chapters are quite nice, easy to read and understand. Predicate logic is presented with clarity. So, why not giving it 5 stars?
Well, there are no answers to exercises, proofs and deductions could be more detailed. Sometimes the tables are odd (maybe this is a problem with the kindle edition), hard to understand.
I think Stan Baronett’s Logic is a much better introduction, with proofs better presented.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was required for one of my classes. Overall a decent introduction to Formal Logic for those looking to learn about it. My professor however, had better methods than using truth tables and used words and phrases that are more common in Logic than what vander Nat uses.