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Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Logic
Originally published in 1966. This is a self-instructional course
intended for first-year university students who have not had
previous acquaintance with Logic. The book deals with
"propositional" logic by the truth-table method, briefly
introducing axiomatic procedures, and proceeds to the theory of the
syllogism, the logic of one-place predicates, and elementary parts
of the logic of many-place predicates. Revision material is
provided covering the main parts of the course. The course
represents from eight to twenty hours work. depending on the
student's speed of work and on whether optional chapters are taken.
Originally published in 1967. The common aim of all logical enquiry
is to discover and analyse correctly the forms of valid argument.
In this book concise expositions of traditional, Aristotelian logic
and of modern systems of propositional and predicative logic show
how far that aim has been achieved.
Originally published in 1934. This fourth edition originally
published 1954., revised by C. W. K. Mundle. "It must be the desire
of every reasonable person to know how to justify a contention
which is of sufficient importance to be seriously questioned. The
explicit formulation of the principles of sound reasoning is the
concern of Logic". This book discusses the habit of sound reasoning
which is acquired by consciously attending to the logical
principles of sound reasoning, in order to apply them to test the
soundness of arguments. It isn't an introduction to logic but it
encourages the practice of logic, of deciding whether reasons in
argument are sound or unsound. Stress is laid upon the importance
of considering language, which is a key instrument of our thinking
and is imperfect.
Originally published in 1990. This study was first written in 1965
when interest in Leibniz was intensifying. The book looks in detail
at the doctrine of necessity - that necessary truths are those
derivable from the principle of identity by the substitution of
definitions. It first considers views of philosophic predecessors,
relating Leibniz' doctrine to Aristotle and Hobbes among others.
The second section examines the conflict between his reductionistic
and formalistic views and the opposing intuitionism and
anti-reductionism of Descartes and Locke. The author critically
examines the theory of necessity, including Leibniz's arguments
against the views of Hobbes and Locke, concluding with distinctions
between necessary and contingent truths.
Originally published in 1985. This study concerns the problem of
treating identity as a relation between an object and itself. It
addresses the Russellian and Fregean solutions and goes on to
present in the first part a surfacist account of belief-context
ambiguity requiring neither differences in relative scope nor
distinctions between sense and reference. The second part offers an
account of negative existentials, necessity and identity-statements
which resolves problems unlike the Russell-Frege analyses. This is
a detailed work in linguistics and philosophy.
Originally published in 1973. This final collection of thought by
founder of the New School for Social Research in New York, Horace
M. Kallen, touches on topics from language to death and from
freedom to value. The author's treatise explores his understanding
of logic and existence.
Originally published in 1988. This text gives a lucid account of
the most distinctive and influential responses by twentieth century
philosophers to the problem of the unity of the proposition. The
problem first became central to twentieth-century philosophy as a
result of the depsychoiogising of logic brought about by Bradley
and Frege who, responding to the 'Psychologism' of Mill and Hume,
drew a sharp distinction between the province of psychology and the
province of logic. This author argues that while Russell, Ryle and
Davidson, each in different ways, attempted a theoretical solution,
Frege and Wittgenstein (both in the Tractatus and the
Investigations) rightly maintained that no theoretical solution is
possible. It is this which explains the importance Wittgenstein
attached in his later work to the idea of agreement in judgments.
The two final chapters illustrate the way in which a response to
the problem affects the way in which we think about the nature of
the mind. They contain a discussion of Strawson's concept of a
person and provide a striking critique of the philosophical claims
made by devotees of artificial intelligence, in particular those
made by Daniel Dennett.
Originally published in 1965. This is a textbook of modern
deductive logic, designed for beginners but leading further into
the heart of the subject than most other books of the kind. The
fields covered are the Propositional Calculus, the more elementary
parts of the Predicate Calculus, and Syllogistic Logic treated from
a modern point of view. In each of the systems discussed the main
emphases are on Decision Procedures and Axiomatisation, and the
material is presented with as much formal rigour as is compatible
with clarity of exposition. The techniques used are not only
described but given a theoretical justification. Proofs of
Consistency, Completeness and Independence are set out in detail.
The fundamental characteristics of the various systems studies, and
their relations to each other are established by meta-logical
proofs, which are used freely in all sections of the book.
Exercises are appended to most of the chapters, and answers are
provided.
Originally published in 1972, Medieval Logic and Metaphysics shows
how formal logic can be used in the clarification of philosophical
problems. An elementary exposition of Lesniewski's Onotology, an
important system of contemporary logic, is followed by studies of
central philosophical themes such as Negation and Non-being,
Essence and Existence, Meaning and Reference, Part and Whole.
Philosophers and theologians discussed include St Anselm, St Thomas
Aquinas, Abelard, Ockham, Scotus, Hume and Russell.
This innovative text reinvigorates argumentation studies by
exploring the experience of argument across cultures, introducing
an anthropological perspective into the domains of rhetoric,
communication, and philosophy. The Anthropology of Argument fills
an important gap in contemporary argumentation theory by shifting
the focus away from the purely propositional element of arguments
and onto how they emerge from the experiences of peoples with
diverse backgrounds, demonstrating how argumentation can be
understood as a means of expression and a gathering place of ideas
and styles. Confronting the limitations of the Western tradition of
logic and searching out the argumentative roles of place, orality,
myth, narrative, and audience, it examines the nature of
multi-modal argumentation. Tindale analyzes the impacts of
colonialism on the field and addresses both optimistic and cynical
assessments of contextual differences. The results have
implications for our understanding of contemporary argumentative
discourse in areas marked by deep disagreement, like politics, law,
and social policy. The book will interest scholars and upper-level
students in communication, philosophy, argumentation theory,
anthropology, rhetoric, linguistics, and cultural studies.
This innovative text reinvigorates argumentation studies by
exploring the experience of argument across cultures, introducing
an anthropological perspective into the domains of rhetoric,
communication, and philosophy. The Anthropology of Argument fills
an important gap in contemporary argumentation theory by shifting
the focus away from the purely propositional element of arguments
and onto how they emerge from the experiences of peoples with
diverse backgrounds, demonstrating how argumentation can be
understood as a means of expression and a gathering place of ideas
and styles. Confronting the limitations of the Western tradition of
logic and searching out the argumentative roles of place, orality,
myth, narrative, and audience, it examines the nature of
multi-modal argumentation. Tindale analyzes the impacts of
colonialism on the field and addresses both optimistic and cynical
assessments of contextual differences. The results have
implications for our understanding of contemporary argumentative
discourse in areas marked by deep disagreement, like politics, law,
and social policy. The book will interest scholars and upper-level
students in communication, philosophy, argumentation theory,
anthropology, rhetoric, linguistics, and cultural studies.
This Handbook offers students and more advanced readers a valuable
resource for understanding linguistic reference; the relation
between an expression (word, phrase, sentence) and what that
expression is about. The volume's forty-one original chapters,
written by many of today's leading philosophers of language, are
organized into ten parts: I Early Descriptive Theories II Causal
Theories of Reference III Causal Theories and Cognitive
Significance IV Alternate Theories V Two-Dimensional Semantics VI
Natural Kind Terms and Rigidity VII The Empty Case VIII Singular
(De Re) Thoughts IX Indexicals X Epistemology of Reference
Contributions consider what kinds of expressions actually refer
(names, general terms, indexicals, empty terms, sentences), what
referring expressions refer to, what makes an expression refer to
whatever it does, connections between meaning and reference, and
how we know facts about reference. Many contributions also develop
connections between linguistic reference and issues in metaphysics,
epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science.
This book presents Goedel's incompleteness theorems and the other
limitative results which are most significant for the philosophy of
mathematics. Results are stated in the form most relevant for use
in the philosophy of mathematics. An appendix considers their
implications for Hilbert's Program for the foundations of
mathematics. The text is self-contained, all notions being
explained in full detail, but of course previous exposure to the
very first rudiments of mathematical logic will help.
This book is a major contribution to decision theory, focusing on
the question of when it is rational to accept scientific theories.
The author examines both Bayesian decision theory and confirmation
theory, refining and elaborating the views of Ramsey and Savage. He
argues that the most solid foundation for confirmation theory is to
be found in decision theory, and he provides a decision-theoretic
derivation of principles for how many probabilities should be
revised over time. Professor Maher defines a notion of accepting a
hypothesis, and then shows that it is not reducible to probability
and that it is needed to deal with some important questions in the
philosophy of science. A Bayesian decision-theoretic account of
rational acceptance is provided together with a proof of the
foundations for this theory. A final chapter shows how this account
can be used to cast light on such vexed issues as verisimilitude
and scientific realism.
Introductory logic is generally taught as a straightforward
technical discipline. In this book, John MacFarlane helps the
reader think about the limitations of, presuppositions of, and
alternatives to classical first-order predicate logic, making this
an ideal introduction to philosophical logic for any student who
already has completed an introductory logic course. The book
explores the following questions. Are there quantificational idioms
that cannot be expressed with the familiar universal and
existential quantifiers? How can logic be extended to capture modal
notions like necessity and obligation? Does the material
conditional adequately capture the meaning of 'if'-and if not, what
are the alternatives? Should logical consequence be understood in
terms of models or in terms of proofs? Can one intelligibly
question the validity of basic logical principles like Modus Ponens
or Double Negation Elimination? Is the fact that classical logic
validates the inference from a contradiction to anything a flaw,
and if so, how can logic be modified to repair it? How, exactly, is
logic related to reasoning? Must classical logic be revised in
order to be applied to vague language, and if so how? Each chapter
is organized around suggested readings and includes exercises
designed to deepen the reader's understanding. Key Features: An
integrated treatment of the technical and philosophical issues
comprising philosophical logic Designed to serve students taking
only one course in logic beyond the introductory level Provides
tools and concepts necessary to understand work in many areas of
analytic philosophy Includes exercises, suggested readings, and
suggestions for further exploration in each chapter
In 1953, exactly 50 years ago to this day, the first volume of
Studia Logica appeared under the auspices of The Philosophical
Committee of The Polish Academy of Sciences. Now, five decades
later the present volume is dedicated to a celebration of this 50th
Anniversary of Studia Logica. The volume features a series of
papers by distinguished scholars reflecting both the aim and scope
of this journal for symbolic logic.
The book aims to formalise tableau methods for the logics of
propositions and names. The methods described are based on Set
Theory. The tableau rule was reduced to an ordered n-tuple of sets
of expressions where the first element is a set of premises, and
the following elements are its supersets.
J. Anthony Blair is a prominent international figure in
argumentation studies. He is among the originators of informal
logic, an author of textbooks on the informal logic approach to
argument analysis and evaluation and on critical thinking, and a
founder and editor of the journal Informal Logic. Blair is widely
recognized among the leaders in the field for contributing
formative ideas to the argumentation literature of the last few
decades. This selection of key works provides insights into the
history of the field of argumentation theory and various related
disciplines. It illuminates the central debates and presents core
ideas in four main areas: Critical Thinking, Informal Logic,
Argument Theory and Logic, Dialectic and Rhetoric.
This book argues that there is a common cognitive mechanism
underlying all indexical thoughts, in spite of their seeming
diversity. Indexical thoughts are mental representations, such as
beliefs and desires. They represent items from a thinker's point of
view or her cognitive perspective. We typically express them by
means of sentences containing linguistic expressions such as 'this
(F)' or 'that (F)', adverbs like 'here', 'now', and 'today', and
the personal pronoun 'I'. While generally agreeing that
representing the world from a thinker's cognitive perspective is a
key feature of indexical thoughts, philosophers disagree as to
whether a thinker's cognitive perspective can be captured and
rationalized by semantic content and, if so, what kind of content
this is. This book surveys competing views and then advances its
own positive account. Ultimately, it argues that a thinker's
cognitive perspective - or her indexical point of view - is to be
explained in terms of the content that is believed and asserted as
the only kind of content that there is which thereby serves as the
bearer of cognitive significance. The Indexical Point of View will
be of interest to philosophers of mind and language, linguists, and
cognitive scientists.
This book presents a set of historical recollections on the work of
Martin Davis and his role in advancing our understanding of the
connections between logic, computing, and unsolvability. The
individual contributions touch on most of the core aspects of
Davis' work and set it in a contemporary context. They analyse,
discuss and develop many of the ideas and concepts that Davis put
forward, including such issues as contemporary satisfiability
solvers, essential unification, quantum computing and
generalisations of Hilbert's tenth problem. The book starts out
with a scientific autobiography by Davis, and ends with his
responses to comments included in the contributions. In addition,
it includes two previously unpublished original historical papers
in which Davis and Putnam investigate the decidable and the
undecidable side of Logic, as well as a full bibliography of Davis'
work. As a whole, this book shows how Davis' scientific work lies
at the intersection of computability, theoretical computer science,
foundations of mathematics, and philosophy, and draws its unifying
vision from his deep involvement in Logic.
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