1 of 1- John West
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Logic Resources
The best resource for learning contemporary, formal logic, is the UCLA's Logic 2010 program. Unfortunately, unless you have access to university classes using it, you probably won't be able to access it. In light of this, I thought I should start a logic resources thread where autodidacts can list their favourite logic resources.
For modal logic, I recommend Rod Girle's Modal Logics and Philosophy[/url] and, for deeper study of the formal languages themselves, Hughes and Cresswell's [url=]A New Introduction to Modal Logic.
For medieval, natural language based logics, I recommend Alexander Broadie's Introduction to Medieval Logic and Terence Parsons's Articulating Medieval Logic.
Unfortunately, besides Logic 2010, I have no other good recommendations for propositional and first-order predicate logic. Sometimes, when people ask me how to learn to argue, I tell them to study contemporary Euclidean geometry.
- iwpoe
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Re: Logic Resources
I've meant to ask you what you think about Sommers' work.
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- John West
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Re: Logic Resources
iwpoe wrote:
I've meant to ask you what you think about Sommers' work.
I was just checking Amazon to tag in a mention of Sommers (see also here). He does good work.
I think some people are overenthusiastic about the possibilities of natural language logic, but I also think it's uniquely suited to the type of online, public philosophy we do here, and people like Parsons may yet make me eat my words.
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Thread Starter- Jeremy Taylor
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Re: Logic Resources
I did a free online course designed by Paul Herrick. You can do it at any time and pace, although you only get videos and lecture slides, rather than actual instructors you can contact. You need to buy the textbook too. It covers all areas of introductory logic, including predicate and some basic modal logic. I can't really comment on the quality for autodidacts compared to other methods (such as simply buying Cope's textbook and working through it). I am somewhat indolent, so I I didn't put in the sustained effort I would need to master the content the first time around. But I learnt quite a bit about predicate logic.
I don't know if it is correct, but Peter Kreeft has argued that symbolic logic is not very useful for most philosophy. Rather, he claims its use is largely limited to a few areas of philosophy and to maths, computers, and a few areas of science. I would recommend Kreeft's textbook, Socratic Logic, if anyone is just interested in informal reasoning, categorial logic, and basic propositional logic. It explains much traditional Aristotelian terminology, such the three acts of the mind and the predicables, and takes a decidedly realist position.
- Tyrrell McAllister
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Re: Logic Resources
I got a lot out of Kneebone's Mathematical Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics. It's available in a very affordable Dover edition. (The one Amazon review is unfair, in my opinion. The professional reviews here give a far more accurate impression.)
The book is probably not suitable if you have no experience at all with formal logic, say up to quantified predicate logic. But even just a basic working knowledge of formal logic should be enough to make the text valuable. You should be good to go if you've ever drawn of up a truth table and converted a sentence of natural language into something like (∀x)((Px ∧ Qy) ⟹ (Rx ∨ (∃y)(Py ∧ Rxy))).
(That symbolic expression might formalize the following sentence: "No matter who you are, if you live in an apartment building and play loud music, then either you have no neighbors, or else there is an apartment-dweller out there who is plotting to cut off your electricity.")