Description
Book SynopsisLOGIC: THE ESSENTIALS concentrates on the fundaments of introductory logic. Practical in orientation and content, Essentials is loaded with class-tested, proven practice exercises. This new text is based on the classic and bestselling textbook, A Concise Introduction to Logic, and nearly all of the exercises in the correlative chapters, so central to the effectiveness of that text, have been retained to ensure more than enough practice for students to master the central concepts. The book focuses largely on deductive logic, but it contains sufficient treatment of induction to provide a solid footing for informal fallacies. The result is a contemporary approach--more focused, more practical, less theoretical--built on a tradition of precise, elegant, and clear presentation of the subject matter of logic, both formal and informal.
Table of ContentsPreface. 1. BASIC CONCEPTS. Arguments, Premises, and Conclusions. Recognizing Arguments. Deduction and Induction. Validity, Truth, Soundness, Strength, Cogency. Argument Forms: Proving Invalidity. 2. INFORMAL FALLACIES. Fallacies in General. Fallacies of Relevance. Fallacies of Weak Induction. Fallacies of Presumption, Ambiguity, and Illicit Transference. Fallacies in Ordinary Language. 3. CATEGORICAL PROPOSITIONS. The Components of Categorical Propositions. Quality, Quantity, and Distribution. Venn Diagrams and the Modern Square of Opposition. Conversion, Obversion, and Contraposition. The Traditional Square of Opposition. Translating ordinary Language Statements into Categorical Form. 4. CATEGORICAL SYLLOGISMS. Standard Form, Mood, and Figure. Venn Diagrams. Rules and Fallacies. Reducing the Number of Terms. Ordinary Language Arguments. Enthymemes. Sorites. 5. PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC. Symbols and Translation. Truth Functions. Truth Tables for Propositions. Truth Tables for Arguments. Indirect Truth Tables. Argument Forms and Fallacies. 6. NATURAL DEDUCTION IN PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC. Rules of Implication I. Rules of Implication II. Rules of Replacement I. Rules of Replacement II. Conditional Proof. Indirect Proof. Proving Logical Truths. 7. PREDICATE LOGIC. Symbols and Translation. Using the Rules of Inference. Quantifier Negation Rule. Conditional and Indirect Proof. Proving Invalidity. Answers to Selected Exercises. Glossary/Index.
