Customer Reviews

Logic Primer - 2nd Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Had the previous reviewer bothered to read the preface to this text, he would have found that the book was meant to be used with an instructor: the first two sentences read, "The most important thing for you to know about this book is that it is designed to be used with a teacher. You should not expect to learn logic from this book alone..."

Contra the previous review, I found this textbook to be tremendously helpful. I was fortunate enough to study with Dr. Bill Robinson, who worked hard to insure that his lectures adequately explained the material: the book complemented that instruction. If I needed to refer back for the formal definition of a term or rule, I had the book to rely on. The definitions were clearly worded, and made plain sense (when coupled with the high level of classroom instruction) and the examples and exercises were helpful for understanding and practice. Step-by-step solutions were given at the back of the book for selected problems. In short, this text provided a useful complement to the fine instruction I received in symbolic logic, and, when properly used in concert with such instruction, should provide any beginning practioner of symbolic logic the tools he needs to begin to his foray into the world of logic.

This book is a logical primer for use with a teacher. If the teacher is inadequate, the understanding of logic is as well. Also, the system is overly complicated, and the long established rules have been thrown out, and replaced by new versions, with new names. Learning by this system will likely cause students to be stymied by more advanced logical pursuits that are based on traditional logic systems, as they will have to learn the traditional system anyway. For this reason, Lemmon's logical system is suitable only as an example of how NOT to teach logic.

Overall, the book is ok but it does not teach you the concepts in detail. If you never had this class before, this book is not for you. It has a lot of exercises but little instruction. If you have a good instructor this book can work, otherwise this book will bring more frustration.

JT

the book arrived quickly, but i wouldn't say this textbook is good at explaining things. it's alright. has answers in the back for most problems.

The book is set up to be nothing more than a guide to the terminology of logic. The examples are scarce and for most people in the class, including me, which used this book were lost. The lecturer had to hold our hands through the whole course. If you had a question, look in the book and feel even more lost. It does give good definitions for the terms but has little in the way of practical application. The exercises would have been more helpful if they had given a step-by-step example of how they are solved. This only occurred at the beginning of the book as I guess the authors assumed that you would have it down after chapter 2. This also might have been a failing of my comprehension as I was told that once you have the formulas down then you can apply them to anything. I doubt that since our tests in this class were curved 30 points. I do not know that there are other books out there to cover this topic but I wish there was. In short, unless you already are an advanced student of philosophy or logic this book will be nothing more than alphabet soup.