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This is a particularly accessible introduction to formal logic for philosophy students. It has been extensively revised and expanded for the second edition, and gives a very clear presentation of the widely used 'natural deduction' approach to logic.
List of contents
Preface: 1. What is deductive logic?; 2. Validity and soundness; 3. Forms of inference; 4. Proofs; 5. The counterexample method; 6. Logical validity; 7. Propositions and forms; Interlude. From informal to formal logic; 8. Three connectives; 9. PL syntax; 10. PL semantics; 11. `P's, `Q's, `_'s, `_'s { and form again; 12. Truth functions; 13. Expressive adequacy; 14. Tautologies; 15. Tautological entailment; 16. More about tautological entailment; 17. Explosion and absurdity; 18. The truth-functional conditional; 19. `If's and `!'s: why natural deduction?; 20. PL proofs: conjunction and negation; 21. PL proofs: disjunction; 22. PL proofs: conditionals; 23. PL proofs: theorems; 24. PL proofs: metatheory; Interlude. Formalizing general propositions; 25. Names and predicates; 26. Quantifers in ordinary language; 27. Quantifer-variable notation; 28. QL languages; 29. Simple translations; 30. More on translations; Interlude. Arguing in QL; 31. Informal quantifer rules; 32. QL proofs; 33. More QL proofs; 34. Empty domains?; 35. Q-valuations; 36. Q-validity; 37. QL proofs: metatheory; Interlude. Extending QL; 38. Identity; 39. QL= languages; 40. Definite descriptions; 41. QL= proofs; 42. Functions; Appendix. Soundness and completeness.
About the author
Peter Smith was formerly Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. His books include Explaining Chaos (Cambridge, 1998) and An Introduction to Gödel's Theorems (Cambridge, 2007; 2013).
Summary
This is a particularly accessible introduction to formal logic for philosophy students. It has been extensively revised and expanded for the second edition, and gives a very clear presentation of the widely used 'natural deduction' approach to logic.
