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Now much revised since its first appearance in 1941, this book, despite its brevity, is notable for its scope and rigor. It provides a single strand of simple techniques for the central business of modern logic. Basic formal concepts are explained, the paraphrasing of words into symbols is treated at some length, and a testing procedure is given for truth-function logic along with a complete proof procedure for the logic of quantifiers. Fully one third of this revised edition is new, and presents a nearly complete turnover in crucial techniques of testing and proving, some change of notation, and some updating of terminology. The study is intended primarily as a convenient encapsulation of minimum essentials, but concludes by giving brief glimpses of further matters.
List of contents
Preface to the Revised Edition Preface to the 1941 Edition 1. Introduction PART 1: STATEMENT COMPOSITION 2. Truth Values 3. Conjunction 4. Denial 5. 'Or' 6. 'But', 'although', 'unless' 7. 'If' 8. General and Subjunctive Conditionals 9. 'Because', 'hence', 'that' 10. Reduction to Conjunction and Denial 11. Grouping 12. Verbal Cues to Grouping 13. Paraphrasing Inward PART 2: TRUTH-FUNCTIONAL TRANSFORMATIONS 14. Substitution in Truth-Functional Schemata 15. Instances 16. Equivalent Schemata 17. Truth-Functional Equivalence 18. Replacement 19. Transformation 20. Proofs of Equivalence 21. Alternation and Duality 22. Normal Schemata 23. Validity 24. Truth-Functional Truth 25. Inconsistency and Truth-Functional Falsity 26. Implication between Schemata 27. Truth-Functional Implication PART 3: QUANTIFICATION 28. 'Something' 29. Quantifiers 30. Variables and Open Sentences 31. Variants of 'Some' 32. 'Some' Restricted 33. 'No' 34. 'Every' 35. Variants of 'Every' 36. Persons 37. Times and Places 38. Quantification in Context PART 4: QUANTIFICATIONAL INFERENCE 39. Quantificational Schemata 40. Predicates 41. Restraints on Introducing 42. Substitution Extended 43. Validity Extended 44. Equivalence Extended 45. Inconsistency Proofs 46. Logical Arguments 47. Identity and Singular Terms 48. Membership Index
About the author
W. V. Quine was Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University. He wrote twenty-one books, thirteen of them published by Harvard University Press.
Summary
Elementary Logic has been noted since 1941 for scope and rigor. Quine provides techniques for the central business of modern logic, explaining formal concepts, treating the paraphrasing of words into symbols, and giving procedures for testing truth-function logic and proofing the logic of quantifiers. Fully one third of this revised edition is new.
