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About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
"This book is terrific... It covers a lot of ground, but in a wonderfully relaxed and interesting way."-Simon Blackburn, University of Cambridge and author of Think
"This text is ideal for giving students a quick introduction to formal logic or for adding pizzazz to an otherwise dry logic course."--Glenn Ross, Franklin & Marshall College
| Preface | ||
| List of Illustrations | ||
| 1 | Validity: What Follows from What? | 1 |
| 2 | Truth Functions - Or Not? | 7 |
| 3 | Names and Quantifiers: Is Nothing Something? | 17 |
| 4 | Descriptions and Existence: Did the Greeks Worship Zeus? | 24 |
| 5 | Self-Reference: What is this Chapter About? | 31 |
| 6 | Necessity and Possibility: What Will be Must be? | 38 |
| 7 | Conditionals: What's in an If? | 47 |
| 8 | The Future and the Past: Is Time Real? | 55 |
| 9 | Identity and Change: Is Anything Ever the Same? | 63 |
| 10 | Vagueness: How do you Stop Sliding down a Slippery Slope? | 70 |
| 11 | Probability: The Strange Case of the Missing Reference Class | 78 |
| 12 | Inverse Probability: You Can't be Indifferent About it! | 86 |
| 13 | Decision Theory: Great Expectations | 94 |
| 14 | A Little History and Some Further Reading | 102 |
| Glossary | 111 | |
| Problems | 117 | |
| Bibliography | 121 | |
| General Index | 123 | |
| Index of Names | 127 |
FLANY
Posted June 1, 2012
This book was not what I exspected it was too technical .Iwanted more of a philosophical interpretation, of the history and foundationaldevelopement of logic too much to ask in a small book like this. Therefore 2 stars.
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Overview
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 ...