Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Graham Priest | 2001-01-18 00:00:00 | Oxford University Press, USA | 144 | Philosophy
Logic is often perceived as having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. In this lively and accessible introduction, Graham Priest shows how wrong this conception is. He explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic deals with issues ranging from the existence of God and the reality of time to paradoxes of probability and decision theory. Along the way, the basics of formal logic are explained in simple, non-technical terms, showing that logic is a powerful and exciting part of modern philosophy.
Reviews
As described by several others among these ratings, Priest's book is an easy to read and engaging introduction to some basic concepts of logic. It is not--and does not claim to be--a comprehensive survey. It would not serve as the textbook for a full course in logic, but can be an affordable supplement in other courses, or even read by someone simply curious about the study of logic.



HOWEVER, it is unfortunate that Priest also chose to go beyond his stated topic by setting up as his examples of logical errors all of the standard arguments about the existence of God (even though he later admits that the actual arguments are often more sophisticated than the versions he shoots down). Another Amazon reviewer has described this at length and given the book one star. The book is overall much better than that. But ANY good textbook book has an obligation to provide balance and range among its examples, political religious, or whatever. Otherwise the examples themselves can function to indoctrinate. (This is common practice in totalitarian cultures.) Questions about God are certainly open to debate--especially in a philosophy class. But by using the arguments for the existence of God merely as his examples of poor reasoning, Priest provides no opportunity for thoughtful debate and does seem to promote a dogmatic subtext.



Other than that, it is a very good book!


Reviews
I got this book because I am starting a study of philosophy. It is my understanding that that in order to understand philosophy, one must understand logic.



This book was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It wasn't at all what I expected-but that's OK. It is what it is.



About the author-At first I wasn't sure if he was a completely arrogant prick, a witty, funny writer. It turns out it is the latter. Very good work on that.



My goal in reading this book was to get a general sense, so I was able to gloss over some of the deeper details-especially the mathematical parts, but I was still able to get a sense of what he was saying. I feel that if I need to, I could always go back and re-read certain parts of this book.



I am very well satisfied by this book. I recommend it to anyone trying to gain exposure to formal logic.
Reviews
The rhetorical device of starting a narrative 'in medias res' is effective in Homer, but is an astonishingly poor organizational scheme for an introduction to logic. By the halfway point of "Logic: AVSI" one has been exposed to not only the majority of first order logic but also a big hunk of modal logic, and by the time one finishes, if one manages to, one has touched on temporal logic, probability theory, 'fuzzy' logic, and decision theory. That is too large a bolus to swallow for an introduction. Now, add to this basic pedagogical unsoundness a steady injection of odd addenda to the core of truth-functional and quantification logic as they are commonly understood, and one has a truly misleading mess. I refer in particular to Priest's introduction of non binary truth values as a solution to the non-problem of the p & !p -> q tautology, and his making an issue of the non-controversy of the use of the material conditional as the truth-functional implication. In doing so Priest has made it unclear why one would bother with formal logic at all, as its interpretation is problematic. Very few logicians or mathematicians consider formal logic up to first order as problematic, though obviously there are some who do. Finally I consider Priest's folding of modal logic into PL without any warnings as very unfortunate. Modal logics are interesting and useful but counterproductive at this level of exposition.

Overall this seems a thoroughly post-modern explication of logic. I doubt that Priest intended it as such, but the book qualifies by reintroducing doubts that were assuaged by universal acclimation well over 60 years ago.
Reviews
Most of the book was well-written. Other parts were not so well-written.



The chapter on time seemed interesting at first, but then he got into an argument about the past and the future, and tried to make a point that they contradict each other, but his conculsion didn't make sense to me. So I skipped the rest of the chapter and went on.



Later in the book he got into some math symbology which I don't think he explained it very well. But I found I could skim over that stuff and still understand the material.



Also, in the Kindle device, some of the special characters and tables don't show up very well.



But the book is not bad for the price, and a good way to test the waters if you're not sure if you'll enjoy studying logic.



You also might want to try Gensler's book. I'm reading it now. It costs a lot more, but it seems more well-written.
Reviews
For the logician or philosophy student, this book may be short. But in relation to the precise logical knowledge of most laymen, it's large enough (over a 100 pages). Priest covers a wide-range of ground and explains the subject at hand, always with a bit of context. He captures the readers interest by a brief visit with Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Then he presses countless necessary aspects of logic from truth tables to probability. I enjoyed how he brings in Frege, Russell, Aristotle, and many others as he explains sundry notions.



The title of this little book conveys what the student receives: A very short introduction to logic (when contrasting this work with a large technical monograph on logic).



I recommend this book for the:

Academic-minded reader who lacks knowledge of logic and its terminology; philosophy/logic students in college; and intelligent writers. Furthermore, it is not for those with a thirst for intellectual depth and breadth in the field of modern logic.

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