Customer Reviews

Introduction to Logic (Dover Books on Mathematics)

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I recommend this book to philosophy students who study philosophical logic and wish to get into mathematical logic. The system of natural deduction he uses is not explained in much detail, but as long as you have learned at least one system of natural deduction and perhaps even the tree method of proof, you should be fine. His definitions and explanations of terms and of how one develops logical rules are excellent and explained very well. There is also a treatment of informal proof methods that mathematicians use, a section on basic set theory, and a section on axiomatizing scientific theories--the latter hinting at some of Suppes' own philosophical ideas.

I used this book as an additional reference for graduate Logic courses and I found it is really a great book that any Mathematician or Logician should have it. Its examples and explanations are very clear that anyone who has little logic concept can easily understand with out any difficulty. Its exercises through out the book are well organized and carefully selected and are very helpful despite the fact that this book lacks answers and solutions for the exercise problems.

Getnet Abebe

Suppes is a reference in the foundations of Maths (Logic and set theory). This Introduction to Logic is actually an introduction to his "Axiomatic Set Theory", a reference on the topic. His language is clear, and yet mathematically precise.
Nice purchase, nice reading.

Life is weird. In 1972 I took a course at the University of Illinois at Chicago and this was the book they used. The course, the professor, and this book changed my life (yes, really). I had been a business major, but I had a lot of elective units to burn. My counselor suggested "Introduction to Formal Logic". I loved it; I felt like I had come home.

Fast forward a year and a half: I'm now a programmer looking for work in Silicon Valley. Because I had been involved with PLATO IV at the U of I, I was using the PLATO terminals at IMSSS (at Stanford) to IM with friends back home (that's right, kids, we had IM in ... 1974). Unbeknownst to me, IMSSS was the personal kingdom of one Dr. Patrick Suppes.

A month later I was hired to work for Computer Curriculum Corporation, Dr. Suppes' company that sold Computer Assisted Instruction systems to schools all over the country. I worked there for 3 years and it was a great experience.

Oh, the book! It's almost 40 years ago, but I still remember the book as presenting ideas -- new to me -- in a clear, almost sparse style. I did not know it at the time, but this is the essential voice of Dr. Suppes. I strongly recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand the logical underpinnings of deduction and argument. I wish I could also give you my prof from those days, but he, like Dr. Suppes, has retired.

It is incredible how some books, written long ago, are still useful. Well, Suppes' «Introduction to Logic» is one of those rare specimens.
I bought it looking for a book that could make my students think for themselves as well as getting excited by the wonderful subject which is logic (deductive reasoning). Its explanations are very clear and solid. The first part which covers propositional and first order logic is presented quite extensive and rigorous. The downside is that there is no metatheory, i.e. there are no proof of the important theorems. This could be understandable since the book has for primary audience first year undergraduates. Another downside of this book is that a large part of the exercises are very difficult to solve because the theory that preceeds them is not enough to know how to proceed. I mean this: at the end of every chapter there are exercises, the problem is that a great amount of these exercises require to know more theory than what is there.
Part II, naive set theory, is delightful. The chapter on functions is just very stimulating. For anyone curious, without mathematical background, to know some set theory this part is suitable. It has one of the downsides of Part I, some exercises are not easy to solve since the theory given is not enough. Nevertheless, the presentation is quite good. Anyone interested in a rigorous set theory can buy the author's «Axiomatic set theory».
Even though I have mentioned some cons of Suppes' book, I still considered it as one of its kind. I mean, it may have no metalogic, but it is still a competent book.