Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22020 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Graham Priest is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland. He has also held positions at the University of St Andrews and the University of Western Australia. He is the author of In Contradiction, Beyond the Limits of Thought, and over 100 articles in philosophy books and journals. He has held visiting positions in universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, and Brazil, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of
Humanities.

Customer Reviews

Either you will buy this book, or Pigs will fly.
If you've never studied any formal Logic before then this book is ideal. It's clear and concise; the chapters are quite short and they follow well from each other. The book introduces a number of Philosophical Problems like the "Thunderplow", and exposes the fundamental flaws in ideas by using methods developed in the book, e.g. The Cosmological Argument. Don't be scared by the formal notation that Priest introduces into the book; I can never understand why people shy away from anything that looks slightly Mathematical. The notation adds clarity and is very easy to follow (and a good way to impress friends). Other good features include a summary at the end of each chapter; exercises on each chapter with answers on the Internet; and a quick-reference glossary of terms. Indeed, this book is such a good introduction to Logic I should give it Five Stars. The reason I didn't is that it is a bit too short; you feel it lacks a certain something. One final thing, it is really nicely presented, right down to the glossy paper and clever outer cover (buy it and you'll see!).

A very good introduction
..this book is a very good introduction to logic, a fundamental aspect of philosohpy and mathematics. For example, logical propositions are constructed as a so called fraction with the premiss as the "numerator" and the conclusion as the "denominator", and this is explained clearly on page 7 out of 109.

The book condenses a wide range of loigcal topics into 109 pages very well, and as it says on the back cover 'it does not attempt to be a text-book' but rather provides a basic introduction to logic.

Any one with a difficulty, perhaps, to mathemtics and symbols might find this book slighlty challenging, but even then the symbols are explained so well it should be no problem. Besides, one cannot hope to be introduced to a technical subject, similar but not the same as mathematics, without the use of symbols.

The whole text is very thought provoking and mentally stimulating, and further questions for consideration are provided a the back, as well as a further reading list.

So, this book is a good introduction for anyone interested in formal logic, mathematics, computers etc., irrespective of previous knowledge.

A logical choice...
Graham Priest is author of several books on logic, including 'An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic' and 'Towards Non-Being: The Logic And Metaphysics Of Intentionality'. He has experience as a professor of logic at the University of Queensland in helping to determine the needs of those who are in need of logic help. This book, part of the Very Short Introductions series of Oxford University, is both an introduction and a refresher for those who have had logic before. Because of its brevity, it might be a bit too condensed for those looking for a logic course; however, used together with a larger text (Copi's logic book is the one I used in my early logic days), this VSI book provides good supplemental information and helps clarify key points.

This book provides an introduction both to symbolic logic as well as linguistic logic. Issues such as probability, truth and fact statements, conditional statements, decision theory and validity are all presented in clear, concise ways. There are fourteen chapters (a lot of chapters for book with barely over 100 pages of text), and each chapter deals with a few key points summarised in a pull-quote box at the end of each chapter. There are diagrams, sentences and equations to illustrate the points in visual as well as language terms.

The final chapter, 'A Little History and Some Further Reading', is a good short review of key figures and historical issues that underpin the material presented in the previous chapters. There is a helpful glossary of terms, and Priest also provides a page of logic puzzles and problems to be worked by the students, keyed to an Oxford University Press website that has the solutions to the questions.

This is a good book for review of logic prior to taking tests (such as the LSAT) or graduate courses that require understanding of logical thought processes (systematic theology or philosophy). As some reviewers have noted, this is not a lock-step presentation of standard analytic logic (indeed, many of Priest's other writings have a more non-standard approach), but does provide some good insights in the overall way in which logic is structured and done.