Product Description
Offering a collection of fifteen essays that deal with issues at the intersection of phenomenology, logic, and the philosophy of mathematics, this book is divided into three parts. Part I contains a general essay on Husserl's conception of science and logic, an essay of mathematics and transcendental phenomenology, and an essay on phenomenology and modern pure geometry. Part II is focused on Kurt Godel's interest in phenomenology. It explores Godel's ideas and also some work of Quine, Penelope Maddy and Roger Penrose. Part III deals with elementary, constructive areas of mathematics. These are areas of mathematics that are closer to their origins in simple cognitive activities and in everyday experience. This part of the book contains essays on intuitionism, Hermann Weyl, the notion of constructive proof, Poincaré and Frege. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume collects essays by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic.All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insights and techniques of each tradition to bear in order to illuminate problems and ideas of the other. These essays address a broad range of topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, and demonstrate the fecundity of the interaction between the Buddhist and Western philosophical and logical traditions. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an introductory guide to the basic principles of constructing good arguments and criticizing bad ones.It is nontechnical in its approach, and is based on 150 key examples, each discussed and evaluated in clear, illustrative detail.The author explains how errors, fallacies, and other key failures of argument occur.He shows how correct uses of argument are based on sound argument strategies for reasoned persuasion and critical questions for responding.Among the many subjects covered are: techniques of posing, replying to, and criticizing questions, forms of valid argument, relevance, appeals to emotion, personal attack, uses and abuses of expert opinion, problems in deploying statistics, loaded terms, equivocation, and arguments from analogy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

A good read for those who missed a logic course in college
This book gives the most frequently used type of arguments that you may encounter in various situations and examines the problems with arguments that are used in, amoung other settings, popular media. If you've never studied logic before, you'll listen to the news and/or politicians in a new and positively critical way after reading this book.

Practical on multiple levels
This text is tough to beat as a resource with which to build a foundation for critical thought. The author clearly presents each topic of focus while emphasizing key points and utilizing examples to ensure the information finds a home in the reader's mind. The format and style of this work contribute to its readability and make it ideal as a reference once the first pass has been made. One's only imaginable complaint might be that the text is unnecessarily lengthy with regard to some explanations. Then again, these instances might not be seen in this light when a concept has to be revisited as a refresher or further clarification outside of the initial reading. As far as basic logic/argumentation texts are concerned, this is amongst the best that are currently available.

Great start for everyone
This book is really impressive. Although I would not state that it is a "beginner's course" to argumentation, it is certainly for those seeking to understanding argumentation in all its forms in a friendly and accessible format. Further, this book's greatest strength is its use of examples and situational argumentation from present day. Through the use of many examples, the reader is able to better grasp each point the author seeks to make. Each argumentation style is properly illustrated with a helpful example. After one reading, I was able to listen to people in discussion or argument and identify fallacies or validities.

If you are seeking a book that catalogs many of the most common uses of argumentation, and their limitations, then this is the book for you. Further, this is a great book for anyone trying to understand the gap between deduction and induction!

Don't You Agree That No Right Thinking Person Would Find Fault With This Book?
The title is an example of overly aggressive questioning and a fallacious attempt to end debate by labeling anyone who disagrees a dunce.In a courtroom the question would be disallowed on the legal grounds that it is argumentative.In the newsroom, the boardroom, and just about any other type of room where people gather to discuss issues, that type of question is asked every day.

Walton clearly (but ponderously) explains why questions of this type (and questions and arguments of many other types) are just plain wrong and shouldn't be tolerated.He not only explains why they're wrong, unlike other books on informal logic that I've read, he gives advice on how to answer them.

As a professional who spent 32 years asking questions and making arguments in a courtroom, I wish that I had read this book at the beginning of my career rather than at the end.

Walton does tend to beat a dead horse, however.Although repetition is the surest method of teaching, as a rule of thumb, three repetitions of a point should suffice.

One other minor quibble.He is occasionally guilty of faulty analysis himself.In analyzing the hunter/anti-hunter debate, he said that the hunter's reply about meat eaters being in a poor position to criticize hunting was a weak argument.He found very little parallel between slaughtering innocent wild animals and eating hamburgers.The parallel is this:The objective of hunting is to eat what you kill.(If you're not dedicated to this proposition, stay out of the woods).In order to eat the hamburger, somebody has to slaughter the innocent cow for you.The difference between the hamburger eating anti-hunter and the venison eating hunter is who killed the food and whether they did it for sport or a paycheck.

Informal Logic
I think tis book did help me to thunk better. i can now buy some stuff and not be ripped off. Because i did'nt understand all of it, i doesnt matter because i tried and it gave me confident to not be ripped off. ... Read more

Product Description
In this witty and infectious book, Madsen Pirie provides a complete guide to using - and indeed abusing - logic in order to win arguments. He identifies with devastating examples all the most common fallacies popularly used in argument. We all like to think of ourselves as clear-headed and logical - but all readers will find in this book fallacies of which they themselves are guilty. The author shows you how to simultaneously strengthen your own thinking and identify the weaknesses in other people's arguments. And, more mischievously, Pirie also shows how to be deliberately illogical - and get away with it. This book will make you maddeningly smart: your family, friends and opponents will all wish that you had never read it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Misleading title
The entire book is a listing, in alphabetical order, of types of uses of language traditionally called "rhetorical devices," many under their Latin names.The explanations given for each are not particularly well-written or clear, and many of the examples used are obtuse.At the end of every alphabetical listing there is a not very helpful sentence or two of how you might use each device.It is unclear why having the Latin name in your head of a fallacious argument that most people would recognize immediately as fallacious is a way to "win every argument."The author's explanation is that if you are able to put a Latin name to something your opponent is arguing, you will make it sound like s/he is "suffering from a rare tropical disease."Why the author thinks this is a positive thing is not entirely clear to me.He further states that throwing Latin around will make you seem "erudite and authoritative."I don't know what circles the author travels in, but in America at least, this type of behavior is more likely to make you sound pompous and condescending.

A good idea, but not awesome execution
This book straight up lists a whole bunch of logical fallacies, and dedicates a page or two to describing each one.The fallacies discussed in the book are interesting to read, and definitely the list of the ones that are covered is pretty comprehensive.The author comes up with plenty of appropriate examples, and generally doesn't stick around on one topic for too long, which is good.

But the writing style I found to be a little hard to read, with the author seemingly overly big words just for the sake of matching the equally-meaningless latin phrases that make up a lot of the fallacies themselves.There's a lot of wit injected in the book too...in fact I might argue too much, as the author seems to be *constantly* trying to come up with something witty to say.The combination of constant attempts to be funny and the "aloof" writing style made it a lot harder than I think it should have been to get through the book.

My last complaint is all the fallacies are presented in alphabetical order, which totally doesn't make sense at all unless you're trying to be a reference book.Maybe that was the goal, though I still think there's any number of alternate orders that could have made life a lot easier.Especially considering how often a fallacy has a "logical" counterpart, which are likely nowhere near each other.

If you're looking for a reference book on logical fallacies, this will fit the bill relatively well.If you just want a good read about messing with people's heads, I might look elsewhere.

Excellent handbook of Fallacies (would prefer non alphabetical layout)
It's an excellent book of fallacies.The layout is professional in appearance.The writing is concise and to the point.The author comes across as erudite and somewhat witty.

I would suggest to the reader to begin at the back of the book however.In the back the fallacies are divided in to five major categories.If one reads the book in order based on these classifications it is not hard to master the material (the problem with this approach is that the reader has to flip back and forth in the book, like a choose your own adventure book, but I think it is worth the effort).If one tried to read the book simply in the order it's laid out in; that is, alphabetical, I think they would have a hard time of it.

If another edition comes out I would hope the publisher would change the format so the fallacies are arranged by classification.

Will you win every argument if you read this book?Ah, maybe.You will be able definitely recognize fallacies when they occur though, and that may help you win arguments, or at least point out how your opponents logic is flawed.

In summary, I think it's an interesting well written book, the only major flaw being the alphabetical layout.

One of the best books on faulty thinking
Disregard the negative reviews and "trivial objections" (p. 162).This is a little gem of a book, funny and engaging, and worth every penny.In the social sciences and literature departments of most universities today, students are at the mercy of political hacks masquerading as scholars, and an irreverent take on common fallacies may get them questioning, and learn to see through, the imbecilities being passed off as knowledge these days.

A must have book
When people argue to win they often cheat by using the trickery of false arguments.With this book you will be better prepared to spot bad logic in argumentation.Every responsible adult should learn to spot deception because it's around us all the time.Another reviewer mentions the "cum hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy.This author points out that this trick is easy to use with statistics.He is right!Once you become familiar with this trick you will see it used often when statistics are quoted.

The book is written in an entertaining fashion without becoming trite.Madsen Pirie provides examples to illustrate his points.The table of contents is an alphabetical list of the fallacies.There is an appendix that names categories of fallacies and then groups the fallacies into the these categories.This is a very helpful book.

When recently studying decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court I noticed that the Justices of the Supreme Court will use logical fallacies to justify some of their decisions.

I plan to buy copies of this book for all my children. ... Read more

Product Description
The general theme of the inquiry presented here is adequately reflected in the title of the volume, which aptly highlights the yukti-agama dimension. In particular, it focuses on various aspects of Indian thought, and Indian logic in particular, with special emphasis on the relationship, and tension, between rational examination and belief in India Philosophical tradition. ... Read more

Product Description
This book with an introduction by Witold Marciszewski, viewsthe history of philosophy and logic from 1837 to 1939 from theperspective of the cradle of modern exact philosophy - CentralEurope. In a series of case studies, it illuminates the developmentsin this region, most notably in Austria and Poland, examining thinkerssuch as Bolzano, Brentano, Meinong, Husserl, Twardowski,Lesniewski, and Tarski, as well as the logicians like Frege andRussell with whom they bore a close resemblance.
The book challenges established views about the history of philosophyand logic in Europe, and shows the vitality of the Central Europeantradition. ... Read more

Product Description
Hegel's philosophy of Right-his moral and political philosophy-was conceived and elaborated as an integral part of a larger speculative system. Despite this, both critics and defenders often have examined his political ideas in isolation, apart from their philosophical context. In this book, Peter J. Steinberger treats Hegel's political philosophy explicitly in items of the general methodological principles Hegel sets forth in the 'Logic', offering the first systematic effort to bridge the gap between these two areas of Hegelian thought.

Steinberger focuses on four issues that are particularly revealing of Hegel's political philosophy in general - crime and punishment, the 'moral' standpoint, marriage, and the structure of the rational state.

Proceeding in the light of Hegelian logic, Steinberger shows that Hegel's reconciliation of individual and social interests within the state is both internally consistent and philosophically illuminating. He argues that Hegel's endorsement of such liberal practices and principles as constitutional monarchy, equal opportunity, and religious freedom is in fact based on philosophical positions far different from those of the conventional theorists of modern politics.

According to Steinberger, much of the debate regarding Hegel's supposed authoritarianism ignores the nature of his philosophical protocol and thus fails to see that his political prescriptions are rooted in a bold and quite radical effort to deduce the concept of the modern state-an effort that far transcends, and is utterly indifferent to, normal partisan disagreements.

CONTENTS: I - CONTEXTS: POLITICS AND LOGIC 1) Accommodationism and Perfectionism 2) Varieties of Conceptual Analysis II - THE CONCEPT OF RIGHT 3) Crime, Punishment, and Abstract Right 4) A Note of the Moral Standpoint 5) Marriage 6) The Constitution of the Rational State 7) Epilogue: Politics and the Ethical Community ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1971, Professor Putnam's essay concerns itself with the ontological problem in the philosophy of logic and mathematics - that is, the issue of whether the abstract entities spoken of in logic and mathematics really exist. He also deals with the question of whether or not reference to these abstract entities is really indispensable in logic and whether it is necessary in physical science in general. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume presents a definitive introduction to twenty core areas of philosophical logic including classical logic, modal logic, alternative logics and close examinations of key logical concepts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent, interesting
Good survey of various interesting topics. Highlight is certainly a superb and enthralling chapter on incompleteness by Raymond Smullyan. He has some great and thought-provoking puzzles, and some very minimal descriptions of incompleteness, first and second.

For some of the other chapters, I would have preferred a clearer discussion of the exact deep theorems. Thus, the epistemic and modal discussions seemed a bit definition-heavy.

Maybe it's me, but I find the reverse subset symbol for implication less clear than the double arrow one. Not sure why they use the former.

Would have preferred more on probability, although there is one chapter. Notably missing is a discussion of fuzzy logic. Maybe quantum logic would have been helpful too.

Valuable reference.

the small squiggles between squaggles and loops
There is a brief and probably terse-for-most introduction to classical first-order logic by Hodges. It spans 23 pages, so it's expected. However, if you have some formal training, e.g. from an introductory course on predicate logic, many of the articles in the book won't be too tough. Some of them seem surprisingly advanced (e.g. the ones on intuitionist logic, many-valued logics, and relevant logics, respectively), either because the authors are being thorough or unnecessarily complicated. It is apparent when they are guilty of one rather than the other (or both for that matter). E.g., the intuitionist article is just thorough, and the introduction of combinators in the relevant logics chapter doesn't fit for this sort of introduction to the subject (though the rest of it is quite good).

Otherwise, most of the chapters are accessible and very good introductionsto various areas of philosophical logic with the added bonus of containing decent bibliographies and "Suggested further readings" at the end of each. A quick look at the introduction reveals that the list of contributors are currently at the forefront of their respective fields. It is one of the better anthologies on philosophical logic available, especially for the price.

Excellent Reference for Philosophers
This book is NOT an introduction to philosophical logic.If you have not had ample exposure to formal logic or mathematical reasoning this book will likely be out of your reach (I would recommend that you start with Gensler's "Introduction to Logic", take a couple courses in Calculus and then tackle this book).For those with the requisite background this work offers a direct, concise rendering of the various subfields of formal philosophical logic including propositional logic, predicate calculus, Godel's Theorem, Fuzzy Logic, Modal Logic, Deontic Logic and much more.The text stresses rigour, so its paragraphs are dense with definitions and symbols.There are no excercises and, as such, this book is best used as a reference.This book is highly recommended for anyone with a solid background in formal logic who is looking for a broad collection of essays to explain the philosophical implications of various systems of formal logic. ... Read more

Product Description
In this book, Stephen Read sets out to rescue logic from its undeserved reputation as an inflexible, dogmatic discipline by demonstrating that its technicalities and processes are founded on assumptions which are themselves amenable to philosophical investigation. He examines the fundamental principles of consequence, logical truth and correct inference within the context of logic, and shows that the principles by which we delineate consequences are themselves not guaranteed free from error.Central to the notion of truth is the beguiling issue of paradox.Its philosophical value, Read shows, lies in exposing the invalid assumption on which the paradox is built.Thinking About Logic also discusses logical puzzles which introduce questions relating to language, the world, and their relationship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Real Gem
I have only recently run across this little introduction to the philosophy of logic.Read raises and discusses many of the problems that professional logicians argue about.His language is accurate and precise.One needs to have at least an elementary introduction to logic to comprehend what he is saying.I believe those who have given the book low reviews have mistakenly believed that this is an introduction to Logic.It is an Introduction to the Philosophy of Logic, a much more abstract and foundational subject.

Read discusses excellently the relationship of ordinary language and logic, the concepts of truth, logical consequence, possible worlds, paradoxes, sorites, relevance, etc.He surveys problems with Conditionals, Constructivism, etc.And he is obviously knowledgable on all of these areas.At the end of each chapter he has a few pages of anotated bibliography referring the reader to the best sources and discussions of the issue.

I am recommending this book as supplemental reading to my logic students.I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

Takes reader behind the logical scenes
I checked this book out of the library to do a basic review of intuitionistic vs. classical logic. It was so readable and so useful, I had to buy a copy of my own. Undergrad students often balk at some of the assumptions they meet in introductory logic classes. What, for instance, is the rationale behind the truth values for material implication? Why is every proposition either true or false? Why can we reason from a double-negation to the affirmative? If you are familiar with classical logic already, this book is an extremely accessible introduction to long-standing debates among professional logicians.

Plenty of interesting issues
Stephen Read is a great philosopher and logician, and he shows in this book that logic is philosophically alive.There's lots of insight in this book, and it's an ideal companion for anyone who is learning logic at a university level and who has a niggling feeling that not everything is as clear-cut as it's sometimes taught.

The book is wide ranging, with excellent chapters on conditionality, truth, vagueness, names and non-referring terms.My upper level logic students love it, and my intro students use it to see where logic can take them and why it's such an interesting field.Read it!

Reason Returns to Logic
This book is one of the best I have read on the philosophy of logic. The best chapters are 1, 2, and 3 on truth, logical consequence, and conditionals. The author espouses moderate realism, a commonsense approach.He reviews the existing scholarship on topics before proffering his ownwell-reasoned opinions.

Most modern basic logic texts go off a cliff inaccepting bizarre definitions of validity and truth conditons forconditional propositions. Most explain that conditional propositions can betreated as truth functional material conditionals. Read corrects theseerrors.

This book was a DISGRACE!
Try as i might, the content of this book was both confused and confusing. I cannot bring myself to recommend this tragedy of a monograph - especially in relation to its handling of the "strengthened liar paradox"which showed a blatent disregard for other work in the field, and Readthroughout appears to overlook some of the more important issues - one suchexample being the dismissal of global relativism in a mere sentence. Thebook cannot justify it's claim to being an "introduction" tologic, and continually presupposes a knowledge of complex philosophicalargument deeming it unsuitable for the uninititiated. Even for those adeptenough to comprehend it's concepts, the writing is disjointed anduninformative, with poor examples.

I would therefore recommend only thatothers look elsewhere for more accurate and readable material. ... Read more

Product Description
Michael Potter presents a comprehensive new philosophical introduction to set theory.Anyone wishing to work on the logical foundations of mathematics must understand set theory, which lies at its heart.What makes the book unique is that it interweaves a careful presentation of the technical material with a penetrating philosophical critique.Potter does not merely expound the theory dogmatically but at every stage discusses in detail the reasons that can be offered for believing it to be true. Set Theory and its Philosophy is a key text for philosophy, mathematical logic, and computer science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A classic text -- given the right audience
This is a superb book, but it has a very specific audience. It is a careful, systematic, investigation of the extent to which the methods of set theory can be used to address philosophical questions. So the audience needs to both be comfortable with the formal presentation of mathematical theories, and to know the issues in the philosophy of mathematics. If you lack the philosophical part, you'll wonder why Potter doesn't just use ZF, and why he keeps being drawn off into various topics along the way. If you lack the mathematical part, you'll find the book hard to understand, although it is extremely systematic. (If you don't know what ZF is, for example, I'd advise starting with some other book.)

Having said that, Potter goes out of his way to present matters clearly and explicitly. Readers who don't exactly fit the audience will learn an enormous amount from this book. Moreover, it is so clear and authoritative, and covers so much ground, that it deserves to be in the canon. It ought to displace Quine's Set Theory and its Logic, for example.

ZU is Potter's set theory (76). It is spare, and very powerful. I believe Potter is trying to capture as much as he can of Frege's original view of sets as logical objects, although he doesn't say this. ZU allows flocks of doves and packs of wolves to be sets, just as it intuitively ought to, but it can also capture the real and transfinite numbers. The book divides into four parts. First, there is the presentation of ZU and its properties. Then we get the usual development of the real numbers. The third section deals with ordinals and cardinals, and a fourth section the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis.

What sets the book apart, though, is its constant return to the history of its subject and the philosophical issues that have been embroiled in it up to the present. You can look through the book at any issue that interests you - Russell's paradox, non-standard analysis, whether there is some deeper notion of a collection underlying set-theory - and Potter always gives a clear explanation and has something interesting to say about it. With graduate students of sufficient ability, the book would make for a really worthwhile graduate level course in philosophy.

When I'd finished reading it, I wanted to read it again.

More math books should be written like this one.
I full concur with Greenberg's review. Assimilating Potter's book is also much easier if one has had a prior introduction to mathematical logic and axiomatic set theory.

Potter sets out an axiomatic set theory he calls ZU, whose axioms are: there is a ground level of sets, every level has a successor level, Infinity, and Reflection (a schema). These axioms are a perspicuous embodiment of the iterative conception of sets and the related hierarchical ontology. Potter then shows that these axioms achieve, in a fairly relaxed way, all we would want these axioms to achieve. This theory should be given an important place at the high table of foundational mathematics.

Set theory is inherently philosophical because its true subject matter is patterns in the human mind and human sensory experience (in this respect, I concur with Lakoff and Nunez). Potter is a bracing philosophical read, but be aware that there is a good deal more to the philosophy of set theory and foundational math than he lets on. His ample bibliography nicely shows the way to more reading in this vein.

Some intellectual history. In the 1960s, the mighty Dana Scott began working on a new axiomatization of set theory, grounded in type theory and the iterative conception. This work culminated in a talk he gave at a 1971 conference, whose proceedings were published in 1974. Scott was also supposed to be working on a monograph on set theory with Montague, who died in 1971, and Tarski, who died in 1983. The monograph will never appear, and Scott never fleshed out the intriguing proposals he published in 1974. Potter's book is the belated bloom of Scott set theory.

Greenberg is right about Mendelson's intro to NBG; it is a good introduction to the mechanics of axiomatic set theory, independently of Potter's book. Potter is also not as well disposed to Quinian set theory as I am.

I am puzzled by Potter's claim that Skolem arithmetic (just multiplication over the naturals) is finitely axiomatizable. Cegielski (1981) firmly asserts otherwise.

Unique blending of mathematics and philosophy
I believe one has to have some familiarity with logic and set theory in order to fully appreciate this wonderful book. Granting that, reading it was the first time I have ever read a mathematics book that I could hardly put down, it was so fascinating.

When I was an undergraduate, a course in naive set theory (similar in content to Halmos' classic) persuaded me to become a mathematician. But when I asked my instructor to precisely define what a 'property' of a set was, a notion that was used in the Axiom of Separation, he evaded the question as too philosophical. Much later, when I studied mathematical logic, I found a precise definition.

Michael Potter does not seem to evade any philosophical questions about set theory. The answers he proposes are given from various points of view so the reader can clearly see the differences and possibly choose the one most congenial: platonism (internal, uncritical, limiting case), constructivism, formalism (pure, postulational). I couldn't pin down exactly what is Potter's point of view except that he is not a strict formalist or a strict constructivist or an uncritical platonist.

His development of the purely mathematical part of set theory is very elegant, especially his axiomatization of the levels of the set theoretical hierarchy. Unlike most strictly mathematical texts, Potter explains why, at each major stage, he is doing what he is doing. In three appendices he also contrasts his approach with the traditional ones. I felt he did not give enough credit to the simplicity and elegance of NBG theory, so well presented in Mendelson's classic text; he is averse to introducing classes as well as sets.

His treatment is replete with fascinating history. He does not hesitate to discuss advanced results which he cannot prove in a treatment at this level, and he provides ample references if the reader is interested in pursuing them.

I am still puzzled by the nature of second order logic, which he says "decides" the continuum hypothesis, which is an undecidable statement in first order logic. I wish he had explained that more.

This is a book that I intend to re-read and to discuss with colleagues who are expert in the field. Very highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
To win in court you must master the elements of legal logic--the ultimate tool of persuasion in the courtroom. In Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert tells how to use legal reasoning to persuade judges and juries.

A 30-year veteran of the bench, Aldisert helps litigators understand and apply the elements of legal logic. Using these skills, you can argue more persuasively--both in briefs and before the court. And just as critically, you can also expose flaws in adversaries' arguments. The result? A competitive edge in the courtroom.

Rather than miring readers in exotic formulas and theories often found in logic texts, Aldisert explains in broad strokes the basics of logic and its application to legal thinking. You'll gain important insight into the mental processes we use in "thinking like a lawyer."Amazon.com Review
Developing good legal reasoning habits is essential to a quality law practice. Judge Aldisert examines legal thinking from a variety of perspectives to help guide lawyers through appropriate reasoning patterns. One Amazon.com reviewer says the book "provides a shortcut to understanding the basics of legal reasoning, including the common law doctrine of precedent, identifying weaknesses in legal arguments, and fashioning winning arguments through syllogisms." --David Marshall Nissman, J.D. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Avoid Kindle Version
The Kindle version of this textbook is a giant mess, avoid at all costs. It is poorly organized, footnotes appear in the middle of paragraphs, and sentences and paragraphs in various places are jumbled and incoherent. Ultimately, the Kindle version of this book is rendered almost useless. If you need this book, buy a hard copy!!!

Great resource, but Kindle edition is a mess
I am thrilled that some publishers of professional resources are starting to make their books available in Kindle format.I've had the dead-tree version of "Logic for Lawyers" on my shelf for a couple of years, but I wasn't able to make time to actually read it until it came out as an e-book.

Unfortunately, however, the Kindle version needs a major clean-up.Footnotes appear at random throughout the text, often in mid-paragraph and sometimes even mid-sentence.Words and phrases are inexplicably missing.In several places, multiple sentences are intermingled, resulting in gibberish.(I ended up keeping the hard copy at hand so that I could untangle the botched passages.)And the table of contents is marred by unnecessary "leader dots" carried over from the hard copy.

It's a shame that the e-book was so poorly produced, because "Logic for Lawyers" is an excellent work.

Law School Useful
I have "invested" in many books to help with the law school experience.Wish I had discovered this one first.Clears up a lot of questions about what the cases mean and how to understand the logic of the law.Shouldbe required reading for first semester in law school.

Great book, but taking a logic course would help
I'm a former legal researcher at a law firm and incoming 1L student at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. This book was on my reading list and I must say, it is an outstanding book on the logical process attorneys use on a daily basis. The book is clear and concise, offering in-depth commentary on certain logic terms, that even the average layman can understand somewhat. The book also contains a great source of humorous passages, that help ease the strain of learning a process, that can be somewhat mundane at times. However, once you have a full grasp on the concepts explained in the book, every argument from thereon, becomes a collection of categorical syllogisms that you can dissect and understand.

The only qualm, is that one should have a logic background, if at all possible. I took a logic class in undergrad, so this book was a refresher in some areas and explained how to apply those unearthed principles to the law. As previously mentioned, an average layman can understand some of the concepts, but in the more advanced areas of the book, having a background in logic would help tremendously and preclude the book from sounding too much like a text/casebook.

Excellent book!
If you are preparing for law school or attending law school, then you need to read this book.This book will improve your understanding/analysis of common law and improve your ability to construct legal arguments. ... Read more

Product Description
The papers presented in this volume examine topics of central interest in contemporary philosophy of logic.They include reflections on the nature of logic and its relevance for philosophy today, and explore in depth developments in informal logic and the relation of informal to symbolic logic, mathematical metatheory and the limiting metatheorems, modal logic, many-valued logic, relevance and paraconsistent logic, free logics, extensional v. intensional logics, the logic of fiction, epistemic logic, formal logical and semantic paradoxes, the concept of truth, the formal theory of entailment, objectual and substitutional interpretation of the quantifiers, infinity and domain constraints, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and Skolem paradox, vagueness, modal realism v. actualism, counterfactuals and the logic of causation, applications of logic and mathematics to the physical sciences, logically possible worlds and counterpart semantics, and the legacy of Hilbert's program and logicism.The handbook is meant to be both a compendium of new work in symbolic logic and an authoritative resource for students and researchers, a book to be consulted for specific information about recent developments in logic and to be read with pleasure for its technical acumen and philosophical insights.

- Written by leading logicians and philosophers
- Comprehensive authoritative coverage of all major areas of contemporary research in symbolic logic
- Clear, in-depth expositions of technical detail
- Progressive organization from general considerations to informal to symbolic logic to nonclassical logics
- Presents current work in symbolic logic within a unified framework
- Accessible to students, engaging for experts and professionals
- Insightful philosophical discussions of all aspects of logic
- Useful bibliographies in every chapter ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Philosophy of Logic is an impressive volume
I regard Philosophy of Logic to provide a treasure-trove of discussions of some of the most vital issues in the philosophy of logic, and it is worthy of being the possession of any serious student (or amateur) of logic or the philosophy of logic. ... Read more

Product Description

This widely used textbook of modern formal logic now offers a number of new features. Incorporating updated notations, selective answers to exercises, expanded treatment of natural deduction, and new discussions of predicate- functor logic and the affinities between higher set theory and the elementary logic of terms, Quine's new edition will serve admirably both for classroom and for independent use.

Customer Reviews (7)

Start Here
This is the best place to start if you want to learn first-order logic: truth functions and quantification theory.Here is why.

Quine is an acknowledge master of symbolic logic.
Quine is the clearest and most coherent writer on logic.
Quine's logic is the most careful and conservative.

By the last I mean the following.Propositional logic, quantification theory, set theory, and mathematics are all different animals.Drawing the line between first-order logic (quantification theory) and set theory allows one to treat the former without the antinomies and other issues plaguing set theory.First order logic has been proven complete, while set theory is not complete.And first-order logic alone is a fascinating and useful tool.One can then tack on set theory as another layer if desired.Yet all other authors I've read fail to make this distinction.I've even read one popular book on "first-order logic" that begins with defining "true" and "false" as members of a set.Why?

This book includes nothing about modal logic, deontic logic, etc.This is a good thing.Begin at the beginning, the foundation.Then if you want to go off onto one of these tangents you'll have a solid base upon which to evaluate these other logics.

Besides all this you'll learn some useful techniques developed by Quine himself such as his Main Method for proving the validity of valid quantificational schema.He'll also teach you alternative methods developed by others.

If you don't understand any of the terms above, don't worry.You will by the time you're done with this book.It is easy to follow for the moderately motivated beginner and rich enough to be of great value to anyone else.And it is a terrific reference.

If you really need something super-basic to get started try Elementary Logic: Revised Edition.

the serum of serendipity surrenders us
It's Quine, so it seems almost polemical though it's an introductory logic text, which is a bit strange. E.g., he is always promoting his own terminology against what's standard: 'alternation' vs. 'disjunction', 'non-exclusive' vs. 'inclusive', 'singulary' vs. 'unary', and so on. The introduction of non-standard terminology is not as bad as some, however.

In any case, it very much reads like a book on the philosophy of logic rather a current introductory logic text (especially of the mathematical sort). For instance, he goes into the use/mention distinct at length, quotation and quasi-quotation, justification of canonical translations of English sentences into the symbolism of a formal theory, etc. I suppose this is so because the book contains basically *no* metatheory (except the Skolem-Lowenheim theory in the appendix). The purpose of the book is to teach the ability to conduct reasoning *in* some formal theory (rather than about it), and to do so practically, putting aside some of the "eloquence" (as he puts it) found in other texts.

It's old, the philosophy is interesting, but I would not recommend it as an introductory text. Or if you were to use it as an introductory text, then one for something more like a cross between critical thinking and formal logic.

Masterpiece
I don't think you get this in a lot of other books. Just look at the Historical Notes; In themselves a guided direction to the most important work on logics. This is truly time saving instead of go wondering what books to read, up to the date of Quine's book of course.

In the end it also contains bibliography, but also a note to a whole other index covering literature up to 1935, this is truly at great value.

I find this book helpful in analysis concerning ideas; Whatever they are, since language usage is the tool for thought, even if not written down.

It's simply a MIND-SPEAKER.

Also more newer books, in for instance computer science, in my personal opinion, skip important questions already asked by scientists which then have been elaborated on.

People who read logic for the first time, like me, ask fundamental questions in order to understand, following Quine's reasoning is surely educational.

A good start
Like any great book, this one could be a bit, though not too much, better. By far and away the most useful element of Quine's book is his treatment of translating ordinary English into logical schemata. I have never seen such a lucid and effective presentation of the task, and I recommend the book very highly to anybody on that account. His presentation of truth-functional and quantificational schemata are solid are simply excellent. The book, however, is not without its defects of which I should caution prospective buyers about. First, there are many treatments in the book of historical interest, but to a student of first-order logic they may seem to be a bit excessive. His incorporation of Polish notation, while fascinating in its own right, is not in accorance with Quine's drive for efficiency and conciseness. A similar account goes for his treatment of Boolean algebra. It is in that treatment that Quine introduces many ideas indispensible to quantificational logic, yet it is tempting to skip over those chapters when one can sufficiently delve into quantification theory. Secondly, his notation is, as another reviewer points out, unorthodox. It is very effective and in my opinion superior to the conventional formality, but this could be difficult to deal with, and one wonders if Quine should have been more cautious about varying his symbols from the norm. Finally, Quine's treatment of the Completeness Proof and the Lowenheim Theorem, while quite solid in their own right, could be more effective. Quine seems to be keen on applying a constructivist approach to the proof, and spends many pages on definitions and lemmas that can be avoided. One can provide a proof by contradiction in order to sufficiently demonstrate most of his treatment of the matter, as so much of it is spent proving the "law of infinite conjunction," which is really only an 8 step proof. I won't go into the details here, but keep that in mind when studying the chapter. Nevertheless, Quine's work is as entertaining as it is rigorous.

a great introduction to first-order logic ...
Quine is well-known in this century for being one of the premier analytic philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition.He probably used this book for his upper-divisioncourse in logic for philosophy majors.After reading this book, I can see his reputation is well-justified.

This book is more than just a textbook in logic.In his own way, Quine shows in his examples just how difficult it is to break down ordinary language into symbolic logic, and in the process (hopefully), one should learn both rigorous thinking and charity.These are rare commodities today.

Quine has the rather idiosyncratic position that modal logic only confuses matters.However, I would rather read a complete introduction to modal logic, than to receive only a chapter's worth of treatment.Hence, I can deal with his excluding modal logic from this book.

I do wish there was a short chapter or glossary on informal logic, since many other treatments do continue to use thoseterms (e.g. Copi).Knowing the terminology does help one to communicate in prose one's analysis of an argument.It does help to know all those latin distinctions (e.g. ad hominem, ad nominem, ad populii, petitio principii, etc.).

That being said, I'm a much clearer thinker for having worked through this book, and I would heartily recommend this for anybody. ... Read more

Product Description
This book introduces the fundamental methods and techniques of correct reasoning, in a manner that shows the relevance of the topics to readers everyday lives. Many new exercises introduced in this edition help supplement and support explanations, aid in review, and make the book visually stimulating.  Includes many fascinating illustrations taken from the history of science as well as from contemporary research in the physical and biological sciences, plus introduces an abundance of new exercises throughout, complete with solutions for the first exercise in a set. Appropriate for those in business, education, political, or psychology careers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Best of a Bad Lot?
Overall this book is an acceptable text for a first course in logic. I find myself torn between using this book and Salmon's _Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking_. One thing I particularly like about the Copi and Cohen text are the summaries on the reverse of the cover and the first page. Also, summary boxes throughout the text are helpful for students. There are a few things I find quite annoying besides the price, however:

1. The overemphasis on Aristotelian syllogistic logic. Anyone who takes a second course in logic (or a course in symbolic logic) quickly learns that syllogistic logic is terribly limited in application. What it does, it does well, but it is like using a machete for surgery when you could be using a scalpel. More emphasis on symbolic logic would have been preferable.

2. The text contains mistakes. In this edition, for example, the second statement of equivalence on p. 443 is incorrect: ~(x)Mx=~(Ex)~Mx. There should be no negation in front of the universal quantifier. The instructor manual with solutions has a large number of errors. This is a problem if the instructor chooses to supply the students with the solution set, as it can create confusion. A book in its 13th edition should not have such basic errors as the one on p. 443.

3. The presentation of Mill's Methods is not as clear as it could be. I prefer Salmon's.

4. Some of the rules of inference in the section on sentence logic are nonintuitive and this makes the material more difficult than is necessary for students. One such rule is "absorption." It is an unnecessary rule. A complete and more intuitive rule set can be found in Paul Teller's _A Modern Formal Logic Primer_ (vol. 1). Teller's book is available for free on his website. I have had much more success teaching sentence logic from Teller's text than the Copi and Cohen.

These complaints notwithstanding, I think this is a find text, perhaps the best of a bad lot (with the exception of Salmon's text, may be). There's no shortage of logic texts out there, and perhaps that is because logic instructors are so particular in how the material is presented that they take it upon themselves to write their own texts, hence the (unnecessary) proliferation of logic texts. This book is a good standard.

This book is awful.
The book could be improved if there were solutions to the problems presented at the end of each section. The test questions presented as supplemental material on the website are difficult and not equivalent to an "Introduction to Logic" course. The questions are too advanced.

great seller!
excellent condition...didn't need the book and received a full refund promptly...no questions asked!excellent seller!!!

great purchase
great condition, received the book on time, and it was purchased at a reasonable price! I saved more than 20% compared to the rest of my classmates!

If you must...
I needed this for a philosophy class at a community college. I found the text to be boring, long, and hard to read. This might be because of the subject matter, but normally, I'm interested by philosophical views. Definitely not a "for fun" read. ... Read more

Product Description
Logic is the backbone of Western civilization, holding together its systems of philosophy, science and law. Yet despite logic's widely acknowledged importance, it remains an unbroken seal for many, due to its heavy use of jargon and mathematical symbolism.This book follows the historical development of logic, explains the symbols and methods involved and explores the philosophical issues surrounding the topic in an easy-to-follow and friendly manner. It will take you through the influence of logic on scientific method and the various sciences from physics to psychology, and will show you why computers and digital technology are just another case of logic in action. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

very well done
Of course, it's only an overview, like everything in the Introducing... series, but this is one of the best.

making complicated things simple
If this book is representative of the series I will look for the others. For a non-philosopher as myself, this book really made a difficult subject easy to follow in its historic development.

Great Introduction to Logic
While the comic-strip style of the "Introducing..." series can be entertaining and beneficial when it comes to breaking up the monotony of dense philosophy, it also tends to be rather distracting and can make the survey of Logic more difficult to understand.HOWEVER, I think this volume is well done!

I feel very comfortable recommending this volume to anyone who is looking for a survey of the philosophy of Logic.While some find this to rudimentary, I believe that is the entire point.This little book is a great afternoon read that outlines the philosophy of Logic in a very approachable manner.

Pick this book up!

This is a great little book.
Sketching the evolution of civilization's thoughts about Logic, from Aristotle to Chomsky, this book touches on just about every question that is likely to occur to you about this fundamental topic.

Logic is key to our technology - yesteday, today and tomorrow - and key to a more profound understanding of ourselves.

This is a worthwhile book. It's a bargain. And the level of sophistication is appropriate for a wide audience.

What, no Boole?
It may seem petty to complain about the omission of one logician in a book that covers such a vast scope in such little space, but really the absence of a key figure like George Boole is very strange.However, the book remains a great summary and overview.It introduces many important ideas and thinkers, is fun and readable and will help you decide if you want to pursue the subject further.If you do, the reading list at the end will steer you in the right direction.If you are completely new to the subject, I would not actually recommend this as your very first book.Ironically enough, you would be better starting with an elementary text on Boolean algebra, to show you some formal logic in action.Then you would get more out of this present work, the great strength of which is that it provides a historical and conceptual framework for further study.
... Read more

Product Description
"Experts in mathematical logic will find this book of engrossinginterest. For mere philosphers it will have a different fascination: inseeing how the achievements of a genius can seem to him to provide afirm foundation for a species of Platonism and the conviction of thesuperiority of minds over computers, and at the same time can encouragehim to favour a quasi-Leibnizian speculative metaphysics and theology.Hao Wang records and assesses the whole with an expert and balancedreasonableness." -- Sir Peter F. Strawson, Magdalen College, Oxford

Hao Wang (1921-1995) was one of the few confidants of the greatmathematician and logician Kurt Gödel. A Logical Journey isa continuation of Wang's Reflections on Gödel and alsoelaborates on discussions contained in From Mathematics toPhilosophy. A decade in preparation, it contains important andunfamiliar insights into Gödel's views on a wide range of issues,from Platonism and the nature of logic, to minds and machines, theexistence of God, and positivism and phenomenology. The impact ofGödel's theorem on twentieth-century thought is on par with that ofEinstein's theory of relativity, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, orKeynesian economics. These previously unpublished intimate and informalconversations, however, bring to light and amplify Gödel's othermajor contributions to logic and philosophy. They reveal that there ismuch more in Gödel's philosophy of mathematics than is commonlybelieved, and more in his philosophy than his philosophy of mathematics.Wang writes that "it is even possible that his quite informal andloosely structured conversations with me, which I am freely using inthis book, will turn out to be the fullest existing expression of thediverse components of his inadequately articulated general philosophy."The first two chapters are devoted to Gödel's life and mentaldevelopment. In the chapters that follow, Wang illustrates the quest foroverarching solutions and grand unifications of knowledge and action inGödel's written speculations on God and an afterlife. He gives thebackground and a chronological summary of the conversations, considersGödel's comments on philosophies and philosophers (his support ofHusserl's phenomenology and his digressions on Kant and Wittgenstein),and his attempt to demonstrate the superiority of the mind's power overbrains and machines. Three chapters are tied together by what Wangperceives to be Gödel's governing ideal of philosophy: an exacttheory in which mathematics and Newtonian physics serve as a model forphilosophy or metaphysics. Finally, in an epilog Wang sketches his ownapproach to philosophy in contrast to his interpretation of Gödel'soutlook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Like Isaac Newton, a mystical side to another great mathematician
Reading this book is discovering something entirely new about Kurt Gödel.It is the same revelation I had when I read the theological works of Isaac Newton.With partial exception to Laplace, the great mathematicians were theologians.Of course, Gödel's reflections fall into the category of "natural theology" or, if you wish, "metaphysics;" nevertheless, it reveals a unity between mathematical innovation and theological thinking.I cannot recommend this book too highly.There is an isomorphism in arguments for God's existence and arguments about infinity in mathematics (I include formal logic and its metatheory under this same rubric of "mathematics").For example, mathematical induction resorts to infinity in its argument when it employs the method of recursion.Gödel's famous incompleteness theorem also employs recursion when he applies Gödel numbering (modeling symbols and formulas in arithmetic with prime numbers).The common theme of noncontradiction in logic and its analogue of dividing by zero in number theory finds its analogue here with metaphysical assertions about the problem of infinite regress when we decline to posit an ultimate or infinite power grounding the entire order of things.This ultimate ground or referent warrants the appellation of "God."Because part of the order of things involves "personality," I would add that this warrants positing "God" as "personal," not "impersonal" as understood by the heathen.Gödel goes through these arguments and much more.His concept of consciousness as a unity sounds like he was influenced by Kant's notion of the transcendental unity of apperception or it could be an original thought.It is better to read one great book by a great mind such as this than a hundred books by mediocre minds.

Hao Wang, Unsung Hero
Wang's presentation of Godel brings the supergenius mathematical logician within the reach of people who are neither logicians nor mathematicians ... at least occasionally. "Godel, Escher and Bach," a previous best-seller effort, didn't manage to do that. I never thought I could or would stay with a book I comprehended so little. It was like digging through a 5 gallon drum of sunflower seeds in search of a cupful of sesame seeds that I could digest and metabolize. But I couldn't stop! Every time I found one of those sesame seeds I could understand and maybe even use to help me understand something else, I got a rush of motivation to keep on reading, in hopes there would be at least one more such sesame seed! The reason was Wang's delivery, based on his very way of being. He is a smart, trained mathematical logician himself who grew up in a contrasting philosophical culture [featuring Chinese nontheistic assumptions] and he managed to become as humble and honest and open minded and open hearted an individual as I have yet encountered in person or on the printed page. His use of self disclosure ... an au currant recommended practice among scientist science writers ... demonstrates a Goldilocks model for others to follow: not too much -- no egotistical tangents, and not too little -- he is remarkably clear about his own assumptons, biases and prejudices. Even if you don't care much about understanding Godel, the book is worth reading to get acquainted with Hao Wang.

The end of books: the pinnacle of knowledge
:The ideas expressed in this book are at least 100 years ahead of their time.Godel wasn't just friends with Einstein, he was (and is) widely regarded as "the greatest logician since Aristotle" (Oppenheimer said that, Aristotle was the father of logic).Einstein said that the only reason he showed up for work at the IAS in Princeton in his last years was so he could walk home with Godel.In his spare time, Godel was the first person in the world to show how Einstein's equations allowed for the possibility of time travel.He did this, not to show how to travel through time, but to show that time has no real existence, it is instead a consequence of the way in which our minds are organized.


:So much for the pedigree, here's some ideas from the book: the existence of an immortal soul can and will be proved scientifically, computers can never be conscious, and mathematical theorems have an existence every bit as real as the chair you are sitting in.


:I was an agnostic before I read this book.Now I know that "mind" and "soul" are just two words for the same thing.Godel is the smartest man that ever lived, and this book contains some of his most interesting ideas in a (reasonably) accessible form.Don't expect to understand more than 10% of it the first time you read it, I have been reading it for years and understand maybe a quarter of it.

Meet Gödel the philosopher
Many mathematicians know about Gödel's famous theorem.But very few know about Gödel the man. Through this book, we come to know the man, especially Gödel the philosopher.

Through this book we find out that althoughGödel and Einstein were close friends, Gödel, unlike Einstein, shunnedpublic debate.He held philosophical views which he knew would be verycontroversial if he were to publicize them, and he greatly dislikedpublshing anything he could not prove rigorously.Accoringly, heinstructed his biographer to publish these viewpoints only after his death.

This book contains hundreds of quotations from Gödel's conversationswith the author.Fortunately, the author left in quotations that he hesaid he did not understand, trusting that others might.

Here are a fewquotes:

"Consciousness is connected with one unity. A machine iscomposed of parts."

"The brain is a computing machine connectedwith a spirit."

"Materialism is false."

"Our totalreality and total existence are beautiful and meaningful . . . . We shouldjudge reality by the little which we truly know of it. Since that partwhich conceptually we know fully turns out to be so beautiful, the realworld of which we know so little should also be beautiful. Life may bemiserable for seventy years and happy for a million years: the short periodof misery may even be necessary for the whole."

If you find Gödel'stheorem interesting, I hope you will read this book and found out moreabout the man behind the theorem. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a revised reprint of the Harcourt, Brace and Company edition of 1962. Written for independent study and suitable for an introductory course in logic, this classic text combines a sound presentation of logic with effective pedagogy and illustrates the role of logic in many areas of humanistic and scientific thought. Cohen and Nagel's elegant integration of the history of philosophy, natural science, and mathematics helps earn this work its distinguished reputation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A UNIQUEINTRODUCTION TO LOGIC
This is the only introductory logic book that discusses the 1931 Gödel axiom system. It isalso the only introductory logic book that discusses the distinction between argument forms and argument schemes (patterns). There are many other important topics treated here and nowhere else in introductory texts. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

An Important Work in Logic History
This book has a lot of interesting remarks. I, however, feel that it is a bit too wordy.

Perhaps the best written written elementary book of logic
I bought the book just because my teacher of elementary philosophy in the university respected Tarski as a master of formal logic. It took me 26 years to get this book in my hands. What makes Tarski unique is, that he was a great logician and a great teacher, too.

I belive that there still are no better guide for a student who wants to understand logic, not just try to remember basic rules of it. The beauty of logic has never been exposed in a better way.

The fifth star was spared to a new, annotated edition of this classic among the field of logic. I hope I can find one some day.

TIMELESS CORE HOLDING IN ANY LOGIC LIBRARY
This timeless classic by one of the five greatest logicians of all time should be owned by anyone who cares about logic - especially at this illogically low price.The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE), the English mathematician George Boole (1815-1864), the German mathematician Gottlob Frege (1848-1925), the Austrian-American mathematician Kurt Gödel and the Polish mathematician Alfred Tarski (1901-1983) are considered to be the five greatest logicians of history.Today it is difficult to appreciate the astounding permanence of what is accomplished in the works of Aristotle, Boole, and Frege without seeing their ideas surviving in the work of a modern master.Of the two modern master logicians Tarski is by far the most suitable for this purpose since he was by far the one most interested in the articulation of the conceptual basis of logic, he was by far the one most interested in history and philosophy of logic, and he was the only one to write an introductory book attempting to explain his perspective in accessible terms. This book, together with Aristotle's Prior Analytics and Boole's Laws of Thought, should form the core of any logic library. All three are still in print and available in inexpensive paperback editions.Hackett publishes an excellent up-to-date translation of Prior Analytics by Robin Smith and Prometheus recently reprinted Laws of Thought with an introduction by John Corcoran.- Frango Nabrasa.

I will always keep it as a reference
This is one of the classic introductory mathematics books. When I was learning logic, I relied on it heavily, although it was not the text for the course. Over my years as a teacher, I have consulted it often and when I was working on a recent book on logic, there were very few days when I did not open it in search of an idea or clarification.
All of the basics of logic are covered in one of the most readable texts I have ever opened. Exercises are given at the end of each chapter, although no solutions are included. This is one of those books that will always be on my key shelves of reference works and it will no doubt receive a great deal of use. ... Read more

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"... the most detailed statement of Heidegger's reflections on logic available in English." -- Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal

"Heim's excellent translation is eminently readable." -- Canadian Philosophical Review

"All in all, an extraordinary book."  -- David Farrell Krell

Customer Reviews (3)

The great philosophy.
The book entitled "Psychoneuroimmunopathology and Daseinsanalysis" is to be published and to be available in Amazon.com. The studies in the book was referred his philosophy. I felt he is the greatest philosophist.

An Excellent introduction to Heidgger's thinking about Technology
This is an essential series of lectures to understand the importance of science and specifically of Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason in Heidegger's later thought. It provides the basis for any inquiry into technology which, in Heidegger's thought, is the latest development of scientific metaphysics. It is also the basis for recent studies of law like Roger Berkowitz's The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition.

Heidegger reads Leibniz
The first half or so of this book is what makes it worthwhile. There we find Heidegger's best sustained discussion of Leibniz. To be sure, there are other discussions of Leibniz scattered throughout Heidegger's work (most notably in "The Principle of Reason") but here we find him attempting to elucidate Leibniz's metaphysics, not discuss aspects of Leibniz's work in connection with a broader theme. Heidegger's style of reading makes for excellent introductions to the thinkers he discusses. It's ironic that a writer who has a reputation for obtuseness and impenetrability can produce vividly clear discussions of other thinkers. It should be noted that Heidegger's "Die Frage nach dem Ding" (the English translation, long and sadly out of print, went by the name "What is a Thing?") is one of the best introductory books on Kant in any language. But Heidegger's approach: cut straight to the "question of Being" and show how the rest of a philosopher's work fits in with his basic metaphysical position, makes for a clear and striking interpretation, even if Leibniz scholars might find it a little over-aggressive in some details. ... Read more