An Introduction to Formal Logic

by Peter Smith

Formal logic provides us with a powerful set of techniques for criticizing some arguments and showing others to be valid. These techniques are relevant to all of us with an interest in being skilful and accurate reasoners.

In this very accessible book, extensively revised and rewritten for the second edition, Peter Smith presents a guide to the fundamental aims and basic elements of formal logic. He introduces the reader to the languages of propositional and predicate logic, and develops natural deduction systems for evaluating arguments translated into these languages. His discussion is richly illustrated with worked examples and exercises, and alongside the formal work there is illuminating philosophical commentary.

This book, a corrected reprint of an edition first published by CUP, will make an ideal text for a first logic course and will provide a firm basis for further work in formal and philosophical logic.

Genres: Philosophy, Logic, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Textbooks

430 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2003

About the author

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Reviews

[jeremiah]

This book was simpler and more conducive to internalizing basic logic than the UCLA Logic Software program and the accompanying "terrytext" that I used my first time around this stuff in undergrad.

[Luther Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best logic textbook I've encountered so far. Very clear and precise in it's presentation of concepts.

...just finished basic propositional logic without conditionals, and have started the sections adding the material conditionals, and again, this is the best book I've tried so far. Next: proofs (trees), and then, quantification! (whoo hoo!! right?)

...trees are a breeze...(sorry!)

...finished proofs section (for propositional logic), and finally moving beyond the "baby stuff" into Quantificational Logic! (again with the whoo hoo!!)

[Kevin Doran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my style. Smith does has some great sections in some chapters, but most chapters would be better if they were significantly cut down. In many places, the long-winded descriptions obscure some simple ideas.

Restall's introduction has a far clearer style, in my opinion.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my style. Takes him 190 pages to get through what Smullyan covers in 30. There are a few good nuggets but for the most part his explanations confuse rather than illuminate.

[C.A. Gray]

I bought a paperback version of this even though that's really not my preference for nonfiction because it didn't come in ebook and got awesome reviews. For what it was, it's probably terrific, but it took me a little while to realize that it didn't meet my needs -- I'm trying to research logic in medicine, and that is almost entirely, if not entirely, inductive reasoning. I didn't realize that until I started reading this book though, which is entirely deductive reasoning. I still read almost 100 pages of what seemed to me to be irrelevant minutiae, like what are the possible shades of meaning of the word "and," "or," etc, before I realized I was probably wasting my time. For formal deductive logic I can see why even that level of detail would be important -- it just isn't for what I was after.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. Maybe one of the most well-written book I have read.

This book is difficult and lengthy, but surprisingly, I found few places that can be shortened, removed, or are unnecessary.

This book is a very clear introduction to formal logic. I have read several other books about introduction to logic, all have their good points, but none has handled so many in depth nuances like this one. However, these nuances, if you know them, are critical, if you want to really use predicate logic in practice. Lacking these understanding, it's almost impossible to use it.

[بـــد ر · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro. Only issue was being too informative at times (especially during TFL) where the constant repetitiveness made me confused at times where the information at hand was very simple and intuitive. FOL was great.

[Lucille Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of formal logic, very dry but easy to understand.