Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Good Book On Logic

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

I'm looking for some recommendations regarding a good book on Philosophical Logic.  Suggestions anyone?

Here are two books. One is "An Introduction to Logic", by H.W.B. Joseph. It is weighty and classical. Then tere is Kelley's "The Art of Reasoning" (his name may upset some people). Joseph's book is a very thorough scholarly treatment of classical logic and although it was first printed in 1916 (the writing style is "classic", shall we say), it's back in print.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you mean by philosophical logic? Are you referring more to logical fallacies and critical reasoning, or to the 'symbolic logic' which is generally required to understand much of modern analyric philosophy?

If the latter, I would recommend Quine's Methods of Logic which, although outdated, is written in a remarkably clear and entertaining style and treats the subject at a good indtructory level without being either too advanced or too patronizing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What do you mean by philosophical logic?

In searching the web for books on logic, I notice two distinctions, philosophical logic and mathematical logic. As I haven't read either variety to know the contents, I assumed the one I was interested in was philosophical logic. Perhaps no distinction is necessary.

Thanks all for the recommendations! I think Fred's recommendation of Ruby's book might be what I'm looking for now, then perhaps something more advanced later (Joseph's).

VES

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are valid applications of mathematical logic, to be sure, but for the most part it is used in philosophy as a tool of obfuscation. Joseph and Ruby would give one more than enough background in philosophical logic but you could move from there to Dr. Peikoff's excellent audio course, Introduction to Logic.

There are also many fine books out there by other authors but they are usually written under the heading of "critical reasoning." If you desire still more on the subject I would recommend these texts far ahead of anything on symbolic logic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In searching the web for books on logic, I notice two distinctions, philosophical logic and mathematical logic.  As I haven't read either variety to know the contents, I assumed the one I was interested in was philosophical logic.  Perhaps no distinction is necessary.

That's correct in a general sense, but analytic philosophy has slightly blurred the distinction. Symbolic logic is used fairly heavily in analytic philosophy, so its kind of included under the noton of 'philosophical logic', along with the more 'traditional' logic topics such as critical reasoning and suchlike. You'd probably be better off starting with the latter, unless youve got a burning desire to read modern anglo-american philosophy.

I'd say the distinction is still valid in that mathematics makes use of far more 'advanced' symbolic logic than that found in philosophy. I doubt there would be a need for any philosophy student to study symbolic logic to this level unless they had a strong interest in (meta)mathematics

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...