Philosophy: logic Books

Book SynopsisMajor figures of twentieth-century philosophy were enthralled by the revolution in formal logic, and many of their arguments are based on novel mathematical discoveries. Hilary Putnam claimed that the Löwenheim-Skølem theorem refutes the existence of an objective, observer-independent world; Bas van Fraassen claimed that arguments against empiricism in philosophy of science are ineffective against a semantic approach to scientific theories; W. V. O. Quine claimed that the distinction between analytic and synthetic truths is trivialized by the fact that any theory can be reduced to one in which all truths are analytic. This book dissects these and other arguments through in-depth investigation of the mathematical facts undergirding them. It presents a systematic, mathematically rigorous account of the key notions arising from such debates, including theory, equivalence, translation, reduction, and model. The result is a far-reaching reconceptualization of the role of formal methods in aTrade Review'This book offers a masterful and comprehensive treatment of the metalogical concepts, distinctions and theorems with which modern philosophy of science is so heavily involved. Both students and professionals in the field can expect to learn much from Halvorson's patient and lucid exposition. Any serious student of general philosophy of science will want to refer to it repeatedly.' Arif Ahmed, University of Cambridge'The book is effectively organized, interspersing formal results and helpful examples among purely textual sections containing thought-provoking discussion … scholars interested in fresh insights into past and current stances/arguments/positions in the philosophy of science, Halvorson's book will be of great value.' R. DeWitt, Choice'Hans Halvorson's The Logic in Philosophy of Science is highly impressive-technically astute and philosophically accomplished … [this] is obviously a work of technical brilliance and philosophical acumen.' T. Parent, MetascienceTable of ContentsIntroduction: 1. Invitation to metatheory; 2. The category of sets; 3. The category of propositional theories; 4. Syntactic metalogic; 5. Syntactic metalogic redux; 6. Semantic metalogic; 7. Semantic metalogic redux; 8. From metatheory to philosophy.

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Book SynopsisThe Cambridge Companion to Philosophical Methodology offers clear and comprehensive coverage of the main methodological debates and approaches within philosophy. The chapters in this volume approach the question of how to do philosophy from a wide range of perspectives, including conceptual analysis, critical theory, deconstruction, experimental philosophy, hermeneutics, Kantianism, methodological naturalism, phenomenology, and pragmatism. They explore general conceptions of philosophy, centred on the question of what the point of philosophising might be; the method of conceptual analysis and its recent naturalistic critics and competitors; perspectives from continental philosophy; and also a variety of methodological views that belong neither to the mainstream of analytic philosophy, nor to continental philosophy as commonly conceived. Together they will enable readers to grasp an unusually wide range of approaches to methodological debates in philosophy.Trade Review'What sets this Companion apart from other recent work on philosophical methodology is its perspective. The essays in this timely volume focus on three metaphilosophical domains - conceptual analysis in analytic philosophy, Continental methodologies, and methodologies lying at the analytic/Continental divide. … This excellent resource will be valuable to those interested in either metaphilosophy overall or one particular methodology. … Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.' J. McBain, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction Søren Overgaard and Giuseppina D'Oro; Part I. Visions Of Philosophy: 1. Doing philosophy Alessandra Tanesini; 2. Philosophy as rational systematization Nicholas Rescher; 3. Sense-making from a human point of view Adrian Moore; 4. Disagreement in philosophy: an optimistic perspective Herman Cappelen; Part II. Conceptual Analysis and the Naturalistic Challenge: 5. Impure conceptual analysis Hans-Johann Glock; 6. What can we do, when we do metaphysics? Amie L. Thomasson; 7. Armchair metaphysics revisited: the three grades of involvement in conceptual analysis Frank Jackson; 8. A naturalistic methodology Hilary Kornblith; 9. What is negative experimental philosophy good for? Joanathan M. Weinberg; Part III. Between Analysis and the Continent: 10. Life-changing metaphysics: rational anthropology and its Kantian methodology Robert Hanna; 11. Collingwood's idealist metaontology: between therapy and armchair science Giuseppina D'oro; 12. Pragmatism and the limits of metaphilosophy Robert B. Talisse; 13. Metaphysical quietism and everyday life David Macarthur; 14. The metaphilosophy of the analytic-continental divide: from history to hope Robert Piercey; Part IV. Continental Perspectives: 15. Phenomenological method and the achievement of recognition: who's been waiting for phenomenology? David R. Cerbone; 16. Existentialist methodology and perspective: writing the first person Jack Reynolds and Patrick Stokes; 17. Hermeneutics and the question of method Kristin Gjesdal; 18. Critical theory's philosophy Fabian Freyenhagen; 19. An extension of deconstructionist methodology Leonard R. Lawlor; 20. Pathological experience: a challenge for transcendental constitution theory? Jean-Luc Petit.

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Book SynopsisSome of our earliest experiences of the conclusive force of an argument come from school mathematics: faced with a mathematical proof, we cannot deny the conclusion once the premises have been accepted. Behind such arguments lies a more general pattern of 'demonstrative arguments' that is studied in the science of logic. Logical reasoning is applied at all levels, from everyday life to advanced sciences, and a remarkable level of complexity is achieved in everyday logical reasoning, even if the principles behind it remain intuitive. Jan von Plato provides an accessible but rigorous introduction to an important aspect of contemporary logic: its deductive machinery. He shows that when the forms of logical reasoning are analysed, it turns out that a limited set of first principles can represent any logical argument. His book will be valuable for students of logic, mathematics and computer science.Trade Review'Elements of Logical Reasoning fills a gap by providing some much needed explanation and motivation to an otherwise dry literature.' Henry Towsner, The Mathematical IntelligencerTable of ContentsPart I. First Steps in Logical Reasoning: 1. Starting points; 2. Rules of proof; 3. Natural deduction; 4. Proof search; 5. Classical natural deduction; 6. Proof search in classical logic; 7. The semantics of propositional logic; Part II. Logical Reasoning with the Quantifiers: 8. The quantifiers; 9. Derivations in predicate logic; 10. The semantics of predicate logic; Part III. Beyond Pure Logic: 11. Equality and axiomatic theories; 12. Elements of the proof theory of arithmetic; Part IV. Complementary Topics: 13. Normalization and cut elimination; 14. Deductive machinery from Aristotle to Heyting.

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Book SynopsisEmily Elizabeth Constance Jones (1848â1922) was an English logician and contemporary of Bertrand Russell, as well as Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge. In this book, originally published in 1911, she argues for the existence of another fundamental law of thought to join the Law of Contradiction and the Law of Excluded Middle: the Law of Significant Assertion. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in logic or in Jones' work.Table of ContentsIntroductory statement; Statement of the case; Fallacies; Definitions of certain terms.

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Book SynopsisAnyone interested in the history of logic, and the history of philosophy more generally, will greatly benefit from this volume which focuses on an extremely rich period in the history of logic: the medieval period. A must-read for students as well as scholars of the history of philosophy.Table of ContentsList of contributors; Introduction Catarina Dutilh Novaes and Stephen Read; Part I. Periods and Traditions: 1. The legacy of ancient logic in the Middle Ages Julie Brumberg-Chaumont; 2. Arabic logic up to Avicenna Ahmad Hasnawi and Wilfrid Hodges; 3. Arabic logic after Avicenna Khaled El-Rouayheb; 4. Latin period up to 1200 Ian Wilks; 5. Logic in the Latin thirteenth century Sara L. Uckelman and Henrik Lagerlund; 6. Logic in the Latin West in the fourteenth century Stephen Read; 7. The post-medieval period E. Jennifer Ashworth; Part II. Themes: 8. Logica vetus Margaret Cameron; 9. Supposition and properties of terms Christoph Kann; 10. Propositions: their meaning and truth Laurent Cesalli; 11. Sophisms and insolubles Mikko Yrjönsuuri and Elizabeth Coppock; 12. The syllogism and its transformations Paul Thom; 13. Consequence Gyula Klima; 14. The logic of modality Riccardo Strobino and Paul Thom; 15. Obligationes Catarina Dutilh Novaes and Sara L. Uckelman; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisThis state-of-the-art overview of ancient logic for students and scholars covers the development of logic in Aristotle and the Stoics, the key concepts at the heart of the ancient logical systems and the legacy of ancient logic in the later philosophical tradition, from the Middle Ages to today.Table of ContentsPart I. The Development of Logic in Antiquity: 1. The prehistory of logic Nicholas Denyer; 2. Aristotle and Theophrastus Paolo Fait; 3. Megarians and Stoics Karlheinz Hülser; 4. Late antiquity Benjamin Morison; Part II. Key Themes: 5. Truth as a logical property and the laws of being true Walter Cavini; 6. Definition Michael Ferejohn; 7. Terms and propositions Paolo Crivelli; 8. Validity and syllogism Luca Castagnoli and Paolo fait; 9. Demonstration Alexander Bown; 10. Modalities and modal logic Marko Malink; 11. Fallacies and paradoxes Luca Castagnoli; 12. Logic in ancient rhetoric Christof Rapp; 13. Ancient logic and ancient mathematics Reviel Netz; Part III. The Legacy of Ancient Logic: 14. Ancient logic in the middle ages John Marenbon; 15. Ancient logic from the Renaissance to the birth of mathematical logic Mirella Capozzi and Leila Haaparanta; 16. Ancient logic today John Woods.

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Book SynopsisThis book uses different perspectives on argumentation to show how we create arguments, test them, attack and defend them, and deploy them effectively to justify beliefs and influence others. David Zarefsky uses a range of contemporary examples to show how arguments work and how they can be put together, beginning with simple individual arguments, and proceeding to the construction and analysis of complex cases incorporating different structures. Special attention is given to evaluating evidence and reasoning, the building blocks of argumentation. Zarefsky provides clear guidelines and tests for different kinds of arguments, as well as exercises that show student readers how to apply theories to arguments in everyday and public life. His comprehensive and integrated approach toward argumentation theory and practice will help readers to become more adept at critically examining everyday arguments as well as constructing arguments that will convince others.Trade Review'… Zarefsky (Northwestern Univ.) provides yet another thoroughly researched, well-written work on argumentation and persuasion … While reading through these chapters, readers are likely to feel as if they are being intellectually fed by a master teacher. One can find many well-written textbooks and secondary studies on this topic … What sets Zarefsky's book apart from other texts is his infusion of nuanced ideas, such as preemptive moves and intensity. Exercises at the end of each chapter are well suited for classroom discussions … The well-developed index will be a valuable resource.' K. L. Majocha, ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface; 1. The argumentative perspective; 2. What arguments look like; 3. The emergence of controversy; 4. Evidence in argumentation; 5. Argument schemes; 6. Fallacies; 7. Case construction; 8. Attack and defense; 9. Language, style, and presentation; 10. Where and why we argue; Appendix: learning argumentation through debate.

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Book SynopsisF. H. Bradley (18461924) was the most influential of the British Idealist philosophers who adopted the work of Hegel while rejecting utilitarianism. This major two-volume work was first published in 1883 and is reissued here in the 1922 second edition. Volume 2 contains further discussion of inference, and some essays.Table of ContentsBook III. Part I. Inference Continued: 1. The enquiry reopened; 2. Fresh specimens of inference; 3. General characteristics of inference; 4. The main types of inference; 5. Another feature of inference; 6. The final essence of reasoning; 7. The beginnings of inference; Book III. Part II. Inference Continued: 1. Formal and material reasoning; 2. The cause and the because; 3. The validity of inference; 4. The validity of inference continued; Terminal Essays: 1. On inference; 2. On judgment; 3. On the extensional reading of judgments; 4. Uniqueness; 5. The 'this'; 6. The negative judgment; 7. Of the impossible, the unreal, the self-contradictory, and the unmeaning; 8. Some remarks on absolute truth and on probability; 9. A note on analysis; 10. A note on implication; 11. On the possible and the actual; 12. On theoretical and practical activity; Index.

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Book SynopsisAn agent often does not have precise probabilities or utilities to guide resolution of a decision problem. I advance a principle of rationality for making decisions in such cases. To begin, I represent the doxastic and conative state of an agent with a set of pairs of a probability assignment and a utility assignment. Then I support a decision principle that allows any act that maximizes expected utility according to some pair of assignments in the set. Assuming that computation of an option''s expected utility uses comprehensive possible outcomes that include the option''s risk, no consideration supports a stricter requirement.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Imprecision; 3. Rational imprecision; 4. Probabilism; 5. The expected-utility principle; 6. Norms for imprecise attitudes; 7. The permissive principle of choice; 8. Sequences of choices; 9. Choices in games of strategy; 10. Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook gives a complete and modern introduction to mathematical logic. The author uses contemporary notation, conventions, and perspectives throughout, and emphasizes interactions with the rest of mathematics. In addition to covering the basic concepts of mathematical logic and the fundamental material on completeness, compactness, and incompleteness, it devotes significant space to thorough introductions to the pillars of the modern subject: model theory, set theory, and computability. Requiring only a modest background of undergraduate mathematics, the text can be readily adapted for a variety of one- or two-semester courses at the upper-undergraduate or beginning-graduate level. Numerous examples reinforce the key ideas and illustrate their applications, and a wealth of classroom-tested exercises serve to consolidate readers'' understanding. Comprehensive and engaging, this book offers a fresh approach to this enduringly fascinating and important subject.Trade Review'This is an excellent introduction to mathematical logic for upper-year undergraduate students with some background in theoretical mathematics. The many wonderful examples relate mathematical logic to other areas of mathematics. Beyond the usual setup and culmination with completeness and incompleteness, Mileti gives a strong introduction to set theory, model theory, and computability. Instructors have the flexibility to suit the examples and direction to their students' backgrounds, and curious students will have an excellent reference for topics not covered in their course. Mileti's gentle prose guides the reader from topic to topic, explaining what we are doing, and why.' Barbara F. Csima, University of Waterloo'This book is a modern introduction to mathematical logic for a new generation of students. Filled to the brim with examples to motivate students and better explain the myriad topics covered, it is more detailed and complete than almost any text on the subject. Yet, amazingly, it is still quite concise and easy to read. Without a doubt, this is bound to be a new classic.' Damir Dzhafarov, University of Connecticut'Building on its author's substantial experience teaching courses in the field, this book provides a thorough and wide-ranging introduction to mathematical logic. The careful choice of topics and high level of detail, particularly in early sections covering material that is often challenging even for mathematically well-prepared students, will make it suitable both for one-course introductions to the field and for syllabuses aimed at preparing students for graduate-level courses in subfields such as set theory, model theory, computability theory, and proof theory.' Denis Hirschfeldt, University of Chicago'Mileti's Modern Mathematical Logic is an absorbing, comprehensive, and well-organized textbook. It contains clear-cut and detailed descriptions of the basic ideas and mathematical arguments, a good number of helpful examples and stimulating exercises, and lucid explanations of the modern view of mathematical logic. It is highly recommended for beginners.' Makoto Kikuchi, Kobe University'This is a great book. I've used drafts to teach mathematical logic many times in the past and students love it. They find that it is very complete, that it doesn't miss any detail, and that it is a great complement to my informal style of teaching.' Antonio Montalbán, University of California, Berkeley'I enjoyed using early versions of this text. For mathematics students, it was much better than any of the standard texts. It begins with a general mathematical approach to induction, recursion, and generation to develop both syntax and semantics. It then offers a variety of tailored routes through wide swaths of logic using real mathematical examples. I highly recommend it.' Richard A. Shore, Cornell University'This book gives a great introduction to mathematical logic for an advanced undergraduate or early graduate-level course. From propositional logic and completeness, through the basics of set theory and model theory, to the incompleteness theorem, the author skillfully presents notions and proofs without shying away from technical details. The exercises after each chapter are at the appropriate level, leading students into more in-depth explorations of various directions related to the topic at hand.' Mariya Soskova, University of Wisconsin-Madison'This is the logic book I would have written if I could write as clearly as Mileti. At last, a complete introduction to the subject from a modern mathematical perspective that proves the incompleteness theorems while also providing a gentle introduction to model theory, set theory, and computability theory along the way.' Henry Towsner, University of PennsylvaniaMileti has written a careful, rigorous treatment of a broad range of topics in mathematical logic. This is a valuable addition to the literature. Daniel J. Velleman, Amherst CollegeTable of ContentsPreface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. Induction and recursion; 3. Propositional logic; 4. First-order logic: languages and structures; 5. Relationships between structures; 6. Implication and compactness; 7. Model theory; 8. Axiomatic set theory; 9. Ordinals, cardinals, and choice; 10. Set-theoretic methods in model theory; 11. Computable sets and functions; 12. Logic, computation, and incompleteness; Appendix: mathematical background; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisIs mathematics ''entangled'' with its various formalisations? Or arethe central conceptsof mathematics largely insensitivetoformalisation, or ''formalism free''? What is the semantic point of view and how is it implemented in foundational practice? Does a given semantic framework always have an implicit syntax? Inspired bywhat she calls the ''natural language moves'' of Gödeland Tarski, Juliette Kennedy considers what rolesthe concepts of ''entanglement'' and ''formalism freeness'' play in a range oflogical settings, from computability and set theory to model theory and second order logic, to logicality, developing an entirely original philosophy of mathematics along the way. Thetreatment is historically, logically and set-theoretically rich, andtopics such as naturalism and foundations receive their due, but now with a new twist.Trade Review'Kennedy creatively embeds Gödel's ideal of 'formalism freeness' into myriad results in contemporary logic and foundations of mathematics, offering novel historical reconstructions of Tarski and Turing. A cutting-edge work of philosophy that synthesizes, while going beyond, our current ideas about foundations.' Juliet Floyd, Boston UniversityTable of Contents1. Introduction; 1.1 The Syntax/Semantics Distinction; 1.2 Our Logical Pluralism; 1.3 Formal vs Linguistic Semantics; 2. Formalism Freeness and Entanglement: Definitions; 2.1 Precedents; 2.2 Entanglement and Formalism Freeness: Varieties; 2.3 A Simple Preference for Semantic Methods?; 3. Computability: the Primary Example; 3.1 On Adequacy; 3.2 Different Notions of Computability Emerge in the 1930s; 3.3 The 'Scope Problem'; 3.4 Turing's Analysis of Computability; 3.5 Gödel's Reaction to Turing's Work at the Time; 3.6 Coda: a Word About Deviant Encodings; 4. Gödel and Formalism Independence; 4.1 Gödel on Formalism; 4.2 Episodes of Formalism Independence in Gödel's Writings; 4.3 Gödel's Princeton Bicentennial Lecture; 4.4 Implementation; 4.5 Logical Autonomy?; 5. Tarski and 'the Mathematical'; 5.1 'The Mathematical', Definable Sets of Reals, and Naïve Set Theory; 5.2 Tarski's Naturalism; 5.3 Squeezing First Order Definability; 5.4 Tarski and Logicality; 5.5 In Sum: Parataxis; 5.6 Coda: an Improvement of McGee's Theorem; 6. Model Theoretic Aspects; 6.1 Abstract Elementary Classes; 6.2 Patchwork Foundations, On-Again-Off-Again-Sim and Implicit Syntax; 6.3 Implicit Syntax, Implicit Logic; 6.4 A Remark on Set Theory; 6.5 Symbiosis; 6.6 Coda: Symbiosis in Detail; 7. On the Side of Natural Language.

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Book SynopsisOne of Ian Hacking''s earliest publications, this book showcases his early ideas on the central concepts and questions surrounding statistical reasoning. He explores the basic principles of statistical reasoning and tests them, both at a philosophical level and in terms of their practical consequences for statisticians. Presented in a fresh twenty-first-century series livery, and including a specially commissioned preface written by Jan-Willem Romeijn, illuminating its enduring importance and relevance to philosophical enquiry, Hacking''s influential and original work has been revived for a new generation of readers.Table of ContentsPreface to this edition Jan-Willem Romeijn; 1. Long run frequencies; 2. The chance set-up; 3. Support; 4. The long run; 5. The law of likelihood; 6. Statistical tests; 7. Theories of testing; 8. Random sampling; 9. The fiducial argument; 10. Estimation; 11. Point estimation; 12. Bayes' theory; 13. The subjective theory.

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Book SynopsisIs it sexist to say that “men are trash”? Can white people be victims of racism? Do we bear any individual responsibility for climate change?We’ve all wrestled with questions like these, whether we’re shouting at a relative across the dinner table, quarreling with old classmates on social media, or chatting late into the night with friends. Many people give kneejerk answers that roughly align with their broader belief system, but flounder when asked for their reasoning, leading to a conversational stalemate—especially when faced with a political, generational, or cultural divide.The truth is that our answers to these questions almost always rely on unexamined assumptions. In Arguing for a Better World, philosopher Arianne Shahvisi shows us how to work through thorny moral questions by examining their parts in broad daylight, equipping us to not only identify our own positions but to defend them as well. This book demonstrates

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Book SynopsisEugene Garver considers the relationship between thought and character. He demonstrates how acts of deliberation and persuasion foster friendship between individuals, leading to common action and diversity.

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Book SynopsisA thorough and practical introduction to inductive logic with a focus on arguments and the rules used for making inductive inferences.This textbook offers a thorough and practical introduction to inductive logic. The book covers a range of different types of inferences with an emphasis throughout on representing them as arguments. This allows the reader to see that, although the rules and guidelines for making each type of inference differ, the purpose is always to generate a probable conclusion.After explaining the basic features of an argument and the different standards for evaluating arguments, the book covers inferences that do not require precise probabilities or the probability calculus: the induction by confirmation, inference to the best explanation, and Mill's methods. The second half of the book presents arguments that do require the probability calculus, first explaining the rules of probability, and then the proportional syllogism, inductive generalization

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Book SynopsisAn introduction to awe-inspiring ideas at the brink of paradox: infinities of different sizes, time travel, probability and measure theory, and computability theory.This book introduces the reader to awe-inspiring issues at the intersection of philosophy and mathematics. It explores ideas at the brink of paradox: infinities of different sizes, time travel, probability and measure theory, computability theory, the Grandfather Paradox, Newcomb's Problem, the Principle of Countable Additivity. The goal is to present some exceptionally beautiful ideas in enough detail to enable readers to understand the ideas themselves (rather than watered-down approximations), but without supplying so much detail that they abandon the effort. The philosophical content requires a mind attuned to subtlety; the most demanding of the mathematical ideas require familiarity with college-level mathematics or mathematical proof.The book covers Cantor's revolutionary thinking about infinity,

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Book SynopsisIn the last fifty years, the study of argumentation has become one of the most exciting intellectual crossroads in the modern academy. Two of the most central concepts of argumentation theory are presumptions and burdens of proof. This book is an an anthology of the most important historical sources on presumptions and burdens of proof.Trade ReviewPresumptions and Burdens of Proof fills a current void in scholarship and provides an excellent balance of prior published work along with new work that advances scholarly inquiry in new directions. It will become a standard resource and will have a heuristic impact in generating new scholarship."" - Raymie McKerrow, professor emeritus of communication and rhetoric, Ohio State University, and editor of Quarterly Journal of SpeechTable of Contents Preface Introduction Part 1. Historical Selections Chapter 1. Dialectical Propositions (from Topics) by Aristotle Chapter 2. Presumptions in Legal Argumentation: From Antiquity to the Middle Ages by Hanns Hohmann Chapter 3. Of the Burthen of Proof: On Whom Shall It Lie? by Jeremy Bentham Chapter 4. Presumptions and Burden of Proof by Richard Whately Chapter 5. The Sportsman's Rejoinder by Richard Whately Chapter 6. The Burden of Proof by Alfred Sidgwick Chapter 7. The Burden of Proof by James B. Thayer Chapter 8. On Presumption and Burden of Proof by C. P. Ilbert Part 2. Contemporary Developments Chapter 9. The Anatomy of a Dispute by Douglas Ehninger and Wayne Brockriede Chapter 10. A Pragma-Dialectical Analysis of the Burden of Proof by Frans H. van Eemeren and Peter Houtlosser Chapter 11. The Juridical Roots of Presumptions and Burdens of Proof by Richard Gaskins Chapter 12. Inertia in Argumentation: Nature and Reason by James Crosswhite Chapter 13. The Liberal-Progressive and Conservative Presumptions: On Deliberation, Debate, and Public Argument by G. Thomas Goodnight Chapter 14. Rhetorical and Epistemological Perspectives on Rescher's Account of Presumption and Burden of Proof by Fred J. Kauffeld and James B. Freeman Chapter 15. The Significance of Presumptions in Informal Logic by James B. Freeman Chapter 16. Analyzing Presumption as a Modal Qualifier by David Godden Chapter 17. The Speech Act of Presumption by Reversal of Burden of Proof by Douglas Walton Chapter 18. Some Presumptions by Edna Ullmann-Margalit Chapter 19. On the Relationship between Presumptions and Burdens of Proof by Lilian Bermejo-Luque Chapter 20. A Rhetorically Oriented Account of Presumption and Probative Obligations in Normative Pragmatic Terms by Fred J. Kauffeld A Bibliography for Argumentation Theorists Works Cited About the Authors Index

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Book SynopsisWhy is it so hard to learn critical thinking skills? Traditional textbooks focus almost exclusively on logic and fallacious reasoning, ignoring two crucial problems. As psychologists have demonstrated recently, many of our mistakes are not caused by formal reasoning gone awry, but by our bypassing it completely. We instead favor more comfortable, but often unreliable, intuitive methods. Second, the evaluation of premises is of fundamental importance, especially in this era of fake news and politicized science.This highly innovative text is psychologically informed, both in its diagnosis of inferential errors, and in teaching students how to watch out for and work around their natural intellectual blind spots. It also incorporates insights from epistemology and philosophy of science that are indispensable for learning how to evaluate premises. The result is a hands-on primer for real world critical thinking. The authors bring over four combined decades of classroom expeTrade Review"This is among the very best critical thinking textbooks I've ever seen. What distinguishes it from others, besides its clarity and accessibility, is that it doesn't simply explain the norms of good reasoning and the common ways in which people flout those norms; it also explains the mechanisms that cause us to flout those norms more or less predictably, and thereby helps us to refute the voice of the primitive cave dweller who lives in our brain." --Ram Neta, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill"Critical thinking is all too often taught as basic deductive logic with a passing reference to inductive logic. Lyons and Ward’s empirical approach to critical thinking draws upon the vast literature in cognitive psychology on heuristics and biases. They expertly blend traditional coverage of deductive logic, inductive logic, causal inference, and probability theory with important psychological results. The final product is a refreshing and promising method to train people how to critically evaluate pressing claims."--Ted Poston, University of South Alabama "Logicians have developed accurate methods of testing reasoning for such desirable properties as deductive validity and inductive strength. Recent work in cognitive science has shown, however, that in everyday life we tend to evaluate reasoning on the basis of heuristics that fail to track these properties reliably. Lyons and Ward's brilliant book is the first to acknowledge this gap between theory and practice and to develop effective strategies for overcoming it. Bravo!"--Christopher Hill, Brown University"The New Critical Thinking is perfect for introductory students. The approach is original in its being psychologically-informed, and it's practical. It will actually help students become sharper thinkers outside the classroom." --Aaron R. Champene, St. Louis Community College, MeramecTable of ContentsTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsPreface to Instructors Introduction To Critical Thinking 1. The Aims and Causes of Belief2. Reasoning and Dual Systems Theory3. Reasoning, Evidence, and Arguments4. Why Reason (Properly)?5. Plan for the BookSummaryPart I: DeductionChapter 1: Validity: Why it Matters 1. Distinguishing the Good From the Bad2. Validity and Impossibility3. More on Logical Impossibility Logical Terms Equivocation4. Logic and the Belief Bias5. Why it Matters: Missing Premises and Insisting on Validity SummaryChapter 2 : Proving Invalidity and Proving Validity 1. Proving Invalidity by Counterexample2. Proving Validity3. Negations, Indicative Conditionals, and Two Important Valid Argument Forms Conditionals and the Wason Test4. Two Important Fallacies: Denying the Antecedent and Affirming the Consequent An Important Note about Fallacious Argument Forms5. More Valid Argument Forms and More About Conditionals 6. Equivalent Sentences and Disguised Conditionals7. Even More Valid Argument Forms: Aristotelian Syllogisms in One Bite Using Euler Diagrams:8. Summation: Evaluating Arguments SummaryChapter 3. Reconstructing and Identifying Deductive Arguments 1. Identifying by Evaluating2. Mapping Complex Arguments3. Reconstructing by Connecting the Dots4. Extra Help: Premise and Conclusion Indicators5. Putting All This TogetherSummaryPart II: InductionChapter 4: Inductive Arguments 1. Statistical Syllogism Conditional Support Comes in Degrees Undermining By Additional Information and the Requirement of Total Evidence2. Defeaters and Mapping Inductive Arguments3. Inductive Generalization Defeaters for Inductive Generalizations The Availability Heuristic4. Argument from Analogy Defeaters for Analogical Inference Deductive Arguments with Analogical Premises5. Inference to the Best Explanation6. Balance of Features7. Confirmation BiasSummaryChapter 5: Causal Inference 1. The Nature of Causation One More Thing about Causation2. "The" Cause? Singling out Causes in a Complex World3. Identifying Causes4. Causation, Correlation, and Confounds Some Varieties of Causal Investigations Better and Worse5. Causal Narratives6. Singular Causes RevisitedSummaryChapter 6: Probability and Frequency 1. Introduction to Probability Probabilities and System 12. Frequencies and Frequency Trees3. The Probability Calculus4. Bayes’s Theorem The Theorem Frequency Trees and Bayes5. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics "Averages" How to Live Effect Size and Effect SignificanceSummaryChapter 7: Reconstructing and Identifying Arguments, Revisited 1. Reconstructing and Identifying2. Mapping More Complex ArgumentsPart III: Truth: Evaluating PremisesChapter 8: Testimony1. The Need for Testimony2. How Can you Spot the Experts if You’re Not an Expert? Sincerity, Competence, Trustworthiness Mapping Arguments from Authority Testimony and Ad Hominem3. Epistemological Perils of the Internet News, Unreliable News, and Fake News4. Wikipedia5. Fair and Balanced?SummaryChapter 9: Science 1. Disagreeing with Science: The Earth is Flat and Star Trek is Real2. Why Trust Science?3. How Does Science Work? Provability Falsifiability4. Hypotheses, Theories, and Conjectures5. Extended Example: Evolution and Historical Explanation6. Science in the Non-Science Press P-hacking7. Applying What We’ve Learned: Crowds, Self-selection, and Causal Fallacies Democracy and Scientific FactSummaryPart IV: ArgumentationChapter 10: Rhetoric 1. Emotion and Belief2. Influencing and Bypassing Reasoning Apt Feelings3. Abuses of Emotive Rhetoric Ad hominem Ad Populum and Peer Pressure Appeals to Force, Pity and Consequences Other Uses of Emotive Language 4. Rhetorical Tricks with Language5. Enthymemes, again6. Rhetoric and Cognitive IllusionSummaryChapter 11: Dialectic 1. The Dynamics of Argumentation The First Golden Rule of Constructive Argumentation: Respond to the Argument The Second Golden Rule: Track the Burden of Proof The Third Golden Rule: Demand Overall Consistency The Fourth Golden Rule: Be Charitable2. Ultimate Premises Depriving the Claimant of Premises3. Analogy, Parity of Reasoning, and Tu QuoqueSummaryAppendix of Fallacies Index

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Book Synopsis“Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character....I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one’s friends to Western civilization.”—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe. “Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them....I find them hard to stop reading.”—Richard Bernstein, New York Times. “Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise.”—Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal. These brief and enlightening explorations of our greatest thinkers bring their ideas to life in entertaining and accessible fashion. Philosophical thought is deciphered and made comprehensive and interesting to almost everyone. Far from being a novelty, each book is a highly refined appraisal of the philosopher and his work, authoritative and clearly presented.Trade ReviewWell-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them...I find them hard to stop reading. -- Richard Bernstein * The New York Times *Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise. -- Jim Holt * The Wall Street Journal *Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character...I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization. -- Katherine A. Powers * The Boston Globe *A godsend in this era of the short attention span. -- Daryl Royster Alexander * The New York Times *

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Book Synopsis“Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character....I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one’s friends to Western civilization.”—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe. “Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them....I find them hard to stop reading.”—Richard Bernstein, New York Times. “Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise.”—Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal. These brief and enlightening explorations of our greatest thinkers bring their ideas to life in entertaining and accessible fashion. Philosophical thought is deciphered and made comprehensive and interesting to almost everyone. Far from being a novelty, each book is a highly refined appraisal of the philosopher and his work, authoritative and clearly presented.Trade ReviewWell-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them...I find them hard to stop reading. -- Richard Bernstein * The New York Times *Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise. -- Jim Holt * The Wall Street Journal *Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character...I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization. -- Katherine A. Powers * The Boston Globe *A godsend in this era of the short attention span. -- Daryl Royster Alexander * The New York Times *

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Book Synopsis“Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character....I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one’s friends to Western civilization.”—Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe. “Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them....I find them hard to stop reading.”—Richard Bernstein, New York Times. “Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise.”—Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal. These brief and enlightening explorations of our greatest thinkers bring their ideas to life in entertaining and accessible fashion. Philosophical thought is deciphered and made comprehensive and interesting to almost everyone. Far from being a novelty, each book is a highly refined appraisal of the philosopher and his work, authoritative and clearly presented.Trade ReviewWell-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them...I find them hard to stop reading. -- Richard Bernstein * The New York Times *Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise. -- Jim Holt * The Wall Street Journal *Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character...I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization. -- Katherine A. Powers * The Boston Globe *A godsend in this era of the short attention span. -- Daryl Royster Alexander * The New York Times *Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Descartes’ life and ideas. * Audible.Com *

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Book SynopsisRapid innovations in digital technology deeply influence views on language and information processing. Any new developments raise many questions for researchers, and can help shed new light on old approaches. Logic is a tool that researchers can use to gain insight into investigations of the relation between form and content, the ways that linguistic utterances change information content and the dynamics of information change. This text presents a broad range of logical investigations into language and information processing. Topics covered include: the notion of "reasonable belief" in commonsense reasoning, perpetual reports in natural languages, the logic of creation and modification of objects, the verification of temporal aspects of reactive systems, analysis of scope by combining model theory and situation semantics, and semantic analysis of the information articulation of linguistic statements.

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Book SynopsisThe use of diagrams in logic and geometry has encountered resistence throughout the years. For a proof to be valid in geometry it must not rely on the graphical properties of a diagram. In logic the teaching of proofs depends on the sentenial representations, ideas formed as natural language sentences such as "if A is true and B is true...". No serious formal proof system is based on diagrams. This text explores the reasons why structured graphics have been ignored in modern formal theories of axiomatic systems. The effects of historical forces on the evolution of diagrammatically-based systems of inference in logic and geometry are explored, from antiquity to the early 20th-century work of David Hilbert. From this exploration emerges an understanding that the present negative attitudes towards the use of diagrams in logic and geometry owe more to implicit appeals to their history and philosophical background than to any technical incompatibility with modern theories of logical systems.

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Book SynopsisOne of the fundamental theses of this book is that logical consequence and logical truth are not simply given, but arise as conventions among the users of logic. Thus Syverson explains convention within a game-theoretic framework, as a kind of equilibrium between the strategies of players in a game where they share common knowledge of events - a revisiting of Lewis's Convention that argues that convention can be reasonably treated as coordination equilibria. Most strikingly, a realistic solution is provided for Gray's classic coordination problem wherein two generals can only communicate with each other through unreliable means.

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Book SynopsisOne of the fundamental theses of this book is that logical consequence and logical truth are not simply given, but arise as conventions among the users of logic. Thus Syverson explains convention within a game-theoretic framework, as a kind of equilibrium between the strategies of players in a game where they share common knowledge of events - a revisiting of Lewis's Convention that argues that convention can be reasonably treated as coordination equilibria. Most strikingly, a realistic solution is provided for Gray's classic coordination problem wherein two generals can only communicate with each other through unreliable means.

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Book SynopsisThe past 20 years have witnessed an ever-increasing number of interdisciplinay research collaborations as computer scientists, logicians, linguists, philosophers, and psychologists all explore the same question: how can logic illuminate the nature of information? This collection covers active research areas at the interface of logic, computer science, and linguistics: process logics, formal semantics, language processing, and a new area where all three meet - the study of images and graphics as information carriers, and the diagrammatic reasoning supported by them.

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Book SynopsisMathematical game theory has been embraced by a variety of scholars: social scientists, biologists, linguists, and now, increasingly, logicians. This volume illustrates the recent advances of game theory in the field. Logicians benefit from things like game theory's ability to explain informational independence between connectives; meanwhile, game theorists have even begun to benefit from logical epistemic analyses of game states. In concert with such pioneering work, this volume also present surprising developments in classical fields, including first-order logic and set theory.

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Book SynopsisMost human thinking is thoroughly informed by context, but, until recently, theories of reasoning have concentrated on abstract rules and generalities that make no reference to this crucial factor. "Perspectives on Contexts" brings together essays from leading cognitive scientists to forge a vigorous interdisciplinary understanding of the contextual phenomenon. Applicable to human and machine cognition in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and psychology, this volume is essential to the current renaissance in thinking about context.

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Book SynopsisThis volume broadens our concept of reasoning and rationality to allow for a more pluralistic and situational view of human thinking as a practical activity. Drawing on contributors across disciplines including philosophy, economics, psychology, statistics, computer science, engineering, and physics, "Reasoning, Rationality, and Probability" argues that the search for strong theories should leave room for the construction of context-sensitive conceptual tools. Both science and everyday life, the authors argue, are too complex and multifaceted to be forced into ready-made schemata.

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Book SynopsisLogic and Representation brings together a collection of essays, written over a period of ten years, that apply formal logic and the notion of explicit representation of knowledge to a variety of problems in artificial intelligence, natural language semantics and the philosophy of mind and language. Particular attention is paid to modelling and reasoning about knowledge and belief, including reasoning about one's own beliefs, and the semantics of sentences about knowledge and belief. Robert C. Moore begins by exploring the role of logic in artificial intelligence, considering logic as an analytical tool, as a basis for reasoning systems, and as a programming language. He then looks at various logical analyses of propositional attitudes, including possible-world models, syntactic models, and models based on Russellian propositions. Next Moore examines autoepistemic logic, a logic for modelling reasoning about one's own beliefs. Rounding out the volume is a section on the semantics of natural language, including a survey of problems in semantic representation; a detailed study of the relations among events, situations, and adverbs; and a presentation of a unification-based approach to semantic interpretation. Robert C. Moore is principal scientist of the Artificial Intelligence Center of SRI International.Table of ContentsPart I. Methodological Arguments: 1. The role of logic in artificial intelligence: 2. A cognitivist reply to behaviourism; Part II. Propositional Attitudes: 3. A formal theory of knowledge and action; 4. Computational models of belief and the semantics of belief sentences; 5. Propositional attitudes and Russellian propositions; Part III. Autoepistemic Logic: 6. Semantical considerations on nonmonotonic logic; 7. Possible-world semantics for autoepistemic logic; Part IV. Semantics of Natural Language: 8. Events, situations, and adverbs; 9. Unification-based semantic interpretation; Index.

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Book SynopsisTo Think Like God focuses on the emergence of philosophy as a speculative science, tracing its origins to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy, from the late 6th century to mid-5th century B.C.E. Special attention is paid to the sage Pythagoras and his movement, the poet Xenophanes of Colophon, and the lawmaker Parmenides of Elea. In their own ways, each thinker held that true insight, whether as wisdom or certainty, belonged not to mortal human beings but to the gods.The Pythagoreans sought to approach this otherworldly knowledge by studying numerical relationships, believing them to govern the universe, and that those who know the number of a thing know its true nature. Yet their quest was a hopeless one, bogged down by cultism, numerology, political conspiracies, bloody uprisings, and exile. Above all, number did not turn out as the most reliable of mediums; it was certainly not a key to the realm of the divine. Thus, their contributions to philosophy's inception, while much better publicized, were not the most significant. That particular role was reserved for an unusual challenge and the elaborate reaction it provoked.The challenge came from Xenophanes, who had argued that reliable truth was beyond mortal reach, because even if by accident a human being should state what is exactly the case, he had no way of knowing that he did, all things being susceptible to opinion. This dilemma is sure to have bothered a legislative mind like that of Parmenides, and we find him introducing techniques for testing the veracity of statements. These methods were meant to be carried out by reasoning and argument alone, without relying on physical evidence or mortal sense-perception, which was deemed untrustworthy. Reason was that one faculty shared by gods and humans alike.In time, Parmenides' ingenious arguments have earned him the title of the first logician and metaphysician whose influence on subsequent thinkers was immeasurable. Parmenides taught us that philosophy was not about claims but about proof, which also makes him the father of theoretical science—which, curiously, began as a quest into the mind of God.Trade ReviewThis is a fresh and stimulating study of the father of Eleaticism – and it would be interesting to see whether this construction of Parmenides could be made to work as a reaction to the modes of thought implicit in the cosmologies of his Ionic predecessors"". - Cambridge Journals

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Book SynopsisThe Sophist sets out to explain what the sophist does by defining his art. But the sophist has no art. Plato lays out a challenging puzzle in metaphysics, the nature of philosophy, and the limitation of philosophy that is unraveled in this new and unconventional interpretation.Here is a new translation of this important late Platonic dialogue, with a comprehensive commentary that reverses the dominant trends in the scholarship of the last fifty years. The Sophist is shown to be not a dry exposition of doctrine, but a rich exercise in dialectic, which reveals both the Eleatic roots of Platonic metaphysics and Plato’s criticism of unrevised Eleaticism as a theoretical underpinning for sophistry.The Sophist is presented now not as an artefact of the intellectual past or precursor of late 20th century philosophical theories, but as living philosophy. In a new translation and interpretation, this late dialogue is shown to be a defense of not a departure from Plato’s metaphysics.The book is intended to provide a complete interpretation of Plato's Sophist as a whole. Central to the methodology adopted is the assumption that all elements of the dialogue to be understood must be understood in the context of the dialogue as a whole and in its relation to other works in the Platonic corpus.Three main points are argued: 1) the dialogue does not present a definitive or positive doctrine of the late Plato, but has the structure of a reductio ad absurdum; 2) the figure of the sophist is employed to critically examining the metaphysics of Parmenides. While acknowledging a core of metaphysical insight in Parmenides, the argument implies that, by failing to account for resemblance, Eleaticism implies an inadequate theory of relations, which makes impossible an adequate understanding of essence. Consequently, Eleaticism unrevised can be taken as the philosophical underpinning for the antithesis of philosophy, lending legitimacy to sophistry; 3) the criticism constitutes an indirect argument for Platonic metaphysics, which has roots in Eleaticism, that is, for the Theory of Forms.Trade Reviewthere are things to be grateful for in this book; above all, it is well argued and clearly written. And, just because of its difficulties, Sophist is studied less than many Platonic dialogues: it is good to have a new translation and a thought-provoking book-length commentary"". - Heythrop Journal

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Book SynopsisFascinating illustrations contribute to this illuminating account of how and why philosophy emerged and make it a must-read for any inquisitive thinker unsatisfied with prevailing assumptions on this timely and highly relevant subject.By taking the reader back to the Greek colonies of Southern Italy more than 500 years B.C.E., the author, with unparalleled insight, tells the story of the Pythagorean quest for otherworldly knowledge—a tale of cultism, political conspiracies, and bloody uprisings that eventually culminate in tragic failure. The emerging hero is Parmenides, who introduces for the first time a technique for testing the truth of a statement that was not based on physical evidence or mortal sense-perception, but instead relied exclusively on the faculty we humans share with the gods: the ability to reason.Trade ReviewHermann's book brings Parmenides to life through lucid explanations and an incisive use of quotations from Parmenides and his contemporaries, offering both scholars and lay readers a 21st-century consideration of an ancient thinker. It succeeds admirably, shedding a classical light on our own age as well as revealing lively intellect of the past"". - Publisher's Weekly

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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