Customer Reviews

Socratic Logic 2E

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Wonderful! I have been waiting for this book to arrive for sometime - I finally got it! The last time books on Aristotelian logic were written was about 40 years ago. Demand for these books diminished because courses in symbolic logic became the norm in universities. I believe David Kelley's book, The Art of Reasoning, is similar in content, but nevertheless differs from Socratic Logic in several key ways. Utilizing the wisdom from the ancients, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Socratic Logic teaches you how to reason effectively in ordinary language from the beginning and continues the approach throughout the whole book.

The material found in this book is sorely missing in these informal logic, or critical thinking books and college courses today. The hallmark of these is to study a few fallacies and decipher their presence in articles, debates, literature, etc., with very little explanation of how these arguments are fallacious. ("Why" they are fallacious is discussed, but not "how".) Only a firm grounding in Aristotelian logic can teach you "how".

For modern critical thinkers, one of the strengths of this book (there are many) is the chapter on "Material Fallacies". Professor Kreeft includes the formal fallacies as well. He goes through 49 fallacies categorized in an intuitive order and presents them in a "commonsensical" manner- to use Professor Kreeft's word.

Now, symbolic logic is good. However, it just has to be appreciated within its proper context. Symbolic logic is a robust tool for in-depth linguistic analyses and the sciences. In contrast, Aristotelian logic is for the humanities. The author makes an excellent distinction in "Section 3: The two logics". So, if you hear some refer to Aristotle's logic as "basic logic", this may be true with respect to the sciences, but not true with respect to everyday conversation, reading, writing, debate, persuasion, presentation, etc. - all of the skills needed to be an educated person in society. No one (and this is not a knock on symbolic logic) converses with, "If p then q . . ." Symbolic logic certainly does help you on paper for in-depth analysis, but the goal is different and this difference is never stately clearly enough in the college classroom. A frequent criticism you hear about symbolic logic is that it doesn't take into account the "material" or essences of the subjects and predicates in propositions. It just focuses on forms of reasoning. Both are important and this book will provide a firm foundation for learning symbolic logic.

Lastly, for a logic text book, the price is not exorbitant. It is worth buying if you want to study the ancient foundations of critical reasoning!

Hi folks, thanks for the great reviews and suggestions. As with any 1st edition textbook, there are still many glitches I'm sure. It didn't take me long to find a few post-production typos. In an effort to better serve you, I'll be posting corrections at www.Trent.Dougherty.net/Socratic_Logic.htm

We hope that you will benefit from this modern exposition of ancient wisdom!

Fantastic! Along with Adler's "How to Read a Book" (which is briefly summarized in Kreeft's book), it is the book I most wish I had been able to read when young enough to profit most fully from it. But no one is too old for this book.

One of the most enjoyable features of this book is the way it skewers modern logic, sometimes allowing it to skewer itself. Worth its price even for that alone. The author does concede value to modern logic in its place.

This book shows both the practical and philosophic sides of logic (if there's a difference).

According to an old proverb, repetition is the mother of learning. This book repeats all the key points so often that the reader could hardly avoid learning them. An answer key provides the answers to the even-numbered exercises of most sets, facilitating self-study. The exercises themselves range over a wide variety of ideas.

A minor matter: Kreeft's version of Barbara Celarent is not couched in dactylic hexameter like the version presented in Sister Miriam Joseph's book "The Trivium". The latter book covers not only logic but grammar and rhetoric as well, in a shorter space, hence is neither as clear nor as comprehensive a treatment of logic as Kreeft's book, but just as entertaining. If you like a stereoscopic view of things consider her book alongside Kreeft's.

The publishers on the whole have succeeded in producing a handsome volume, but there are many annoying glitches, some of which could have been found with a spell checker. Confusion may arise from the misspelling of "gaol" and of the Latin words "nomina" and "affirmo". It appears to me (a former mathematician) that the author uses the term "zero-sum" in a non-idiomatic manner. And surely, when the author recommends reading all of Plato's works up to the Republic, it wouldn't have taken much space to list them.

The most serious drawback is the absence of an adequate index. Whether you use this book as a textbook or just for your own enjoyment, I recommend you make your own index as you go along.

The section "Logic and Theology" begins: "In principle, what could possibly be a more important application of logic than its application to the ulitmate question, the question about ultimate reality?" Five sections later: "Ethics is the most important part of philosophy." I leave it up to you to decide whether there's any contradiction here, or whether I'm just quoting out of context, equivocating, or committing one of the other fallacies in this book's long list. But I predict you'll be profiting from this book long after you've forgotten the details of most of your college texts.

This book saved me from never having known the joys and invigorating certainties of Aristotelian logic.

Compared to the course in 'modern' Logic I took in the fall, which focused on the dry and obtruse 'computer science logic' of the last two centries, this tome was a flood of useful and clear Truths about how to think. It is a primer on Sanity and doesn't rest until you know your stuff.

If you are a teacher, please buy this book for your class. This is one of the few times where the book students need is also one they'd want!

I've been teaching for 30 years, & have taught undergraduate & graduate logic numerous times, yet I didn't have a fully satisfying single logic text until 2004, when this volume first appeared. If I were on a desert island & could have only one logic text to teach from this would be it. As another reviewer noted, this is the first comprehensive Aristolelian text in several decades. I would add that it is head & shoulders above any I know of from the last 100 years, & also supercedes its predecessors by being aware of, anticipating, & responding to the other streams in logic instruction over the last century, including analytics, mathematical, symbolic, etc. My brother is a professor as well, & last year he described for me how he had constructed an entire logic course curriculum from scratch because he was dissatisfied with the logic texts that were in print & could be ordered by his students. With a touch of smugness, I asked him if he had seen this new text, which I had just adopted for my next excursion in logic instruction. "No," he answered rather hesitantly, "but does it have . . . . " To each of his subsequent queries, I answered, "Yes, of course." By the end of the phone conversation I was sure he was scrambling to redeem the hundreds of hours he had spent in solitary preparation when he could have simply chosen Kreeft's Socratic Logic as the text. If you are a teacher of logic, or desire to learn how to think critically in all areas of study, don't follow my brother's example & devise your own curriculum. Follow mine & use Kreeft. You will be satisfied.

Peter Kreeft, author of over 40 books, writes: "We can't avoid reasoning; we can only avoid doing it well." And in "Socratic Logic" the good professor discusses the different applications of modern symbolic logic (Kreeft names as "mathematical logic") in relation to "Old Logic." Kreeft tackles some difficult notions yet writes in a very accessible manner.

The reader will discover how to:

- use old logic to rightly think, argue, and write
- utilize the classical Aristotelian logic
- recognize the right benefit of modern logic
- apply logic in apologetic encounters.

Kreeft states: "An argument in apologetics, when actually used in dialogue, is an extension of the arguer. The arguer's tone, sincerity, care, concern, listening, and respect matter as much as his or her logic - probably more. The world was won for Christ not by arguments but by sanctity: "What you are speaks so loud, I can hardly hear what you say."
This volume is straightforward and not too difficult. It makes a fine basic volume for beginners because it is practical and thought-provoking. It will help the reader construct logical and philosophically powerful arguments to advance the truth using the Socratic approach in an assortment of situations.

The author adds: "Argumentation is a human enterprise that is embedded in a larger social and psychological context. This context includes (1) the total psyches of the two persons engaged in dialogue, (2) the relationship between the two persons, (3) the immediate situation in which they find themselves and (4) the larger social, cultural and historical situation surrounding them."

The Dr. Kreeft offers a high-quality analysis and application of old logic for today's use. If you are an educator or a student of logic, or aspire to study how to think critically, then you will receive much for this book.
Kreeft adds: "One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do harm in the end is the honest pursuit of the truth."

For a fresh book that contends for Christian theism using logic see:
Truth, Knowledge and the Reason for God: The Defense of the Rational Assurance of Christianity

I took this class with Dr. Kreeft and naturally this was the assigned text. It's an amazing, simplistic, and commonsensical approach to logic that will make anyone a much more intelligent thinker, writer, and speaker. I highly recommend the book, and if you have the opportunity, a class with Dr. Kreeft.

This is a nice text. It is far superior to a text that was used in a university course that I took recently. Kreeft covers the basics of classical logic. If you are philosophical at all, you will find this book extremely interesting. It is the kind of textbook that lends itself to do it yourselfers. I taught the entire book to myself in about 4 months. (I would encourage the do it yourselfers to makes sure and do the exercises. Otherwise, you will think you know the stuff when you really don't.)

One warning, the editor is kinda bad. I don't want to insult the guy because I see that he has posted here, but I have a 2nd edition and it contains noticeable mistakes. For example, the answers in the back of the book sometimes do not correspond to the questions in the text. It is very frustrating for a do it yourselfer when the answers in the back of the book are not trustworthy. How am I supposed to know if I truly understand the concepts when I can't trust the answers in the back. End of rant.

With that being said, I would encourage anyone thinking about buying this book to absolutely go ahead and buy it. It is a very entertaining and informative book. I go back and read sections here and there all the time. Just make sure and buy a used copy because it is not worth 4o bucks. Few books are.

Some of the other reviewers have mentioned that this book contains many philosophical nuggets. Here is another example. Kreeft includes a section on "sorites." A sorites is simply a string of syllogisms in a series. For example: All who suffer, persevere. All who persevere, develop character. All who develop character, have hope. All who have hope will not be disappointed. Therefore all who suffer, will not be disappointed. That's the end of the sorites; pretty cool, huh. He goes into more detail and explains what they are really made of and how to use them yourself etc.

I once heard Kreeft say that there are 4 kinds of books (I think this comment about 4 kinds of books was inspired by Mortimer Adler; by the way, the more Adler you read, the more you realize how much Adler Kreeft has read.) Anyway, these are the kinds of books: (1) books that are confused and unclear and remain so no matter how many times you read it; these are bad books. (2) books that are clear from the first reading and remain so; these are simple books. (3) books that are clear on the first reading, less clear on the second reading, and more and more unclear the more you read it; these are bad books, what seemed bright and clear was really muddled and confuses. (4) books that are unclear on the first reading, clearer on the second reading, and continue to get clear and clearer no matter how many times you read it; and it's almost impossible to get to the bottom of these books. Well, this book, "Socratic Logic", is the fourth kind of book. Buy it, read it, and read it some more.

I would give this a 5-star rating, except for the patent need for some extensive editing work. I am gratified to see that the editors are going to correct these minor but irritating errors - irritating because I am using this text book to teach a "bunch" of my friends real logic.

This is a really interesting book. I'm actually still in the process of reading it, (as I'm taking his Logic class this semester) but I figured I'd put in my two sense. Kreeft is really intelligent! He's got such a sense of humor (dry) and he is completely random. But his book is very well-written and the exercises help to instill understanding of what you have read. My favorite chapter right now is "Material Fallacies" and the most dreaded, hard chapter is Chapter 2. But overall, if you're interested in Logic, you should read this!