Donald R Gregory

Mind Your Logic Donald R Gregory 2 New edition

2013 Revised Printing Now Available!Sometimes it is helpful to reflect upon how we do the things we do. Reasoning logically is one of the things we do, and in this book we will reflect upon how we do it.

Mind Your Logic is designed for the introductory logic student, it contains a treatment of the essential ingredients of an introductory course: the nature, strengths, and limitations of logic; induction vs. deduction; the relation between language and logic; informal fallacies; the classical logic of the categorical proposition and categorical syllogism; symbolic or truth-functional logic including the truth-table method of testing arguments, formal proof of validity, and a brief introduction to quantification.

Exercises are provided for each major point covered, and in addition to traditional "problem-solving" exercises, there are many invitations to the student to explain in a brief paragraph the concept just discussed. This latter sort of exercise is designed to provide a "reality check" to be sure the student is not simply memorizing formulas and definitions. Working through the exercises serves the dual purpose of providing practice in careful writing and learning key logical concepts in other than a rote manner. Answers to all the exercises in the text, in addition to some extra exercises for practice, will be found at the end of the book.

Some distinctive features of Mind Your Logic include the following:



Emphasis is given to the role logic plays in our lives with regard to both its strengths and limitations.
Analogies are frequently employed to make difficult concepts easier to understand.
Philosophical controversies in logic, while not ignored, are mentioned only briefly for what they are, namely issues which primarily concern professionals and advanced students in the field.