Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) Kindle Edition

Logic Review

This book changed my life. It was like knowledge medicine. It helped me eliminate a lot of what I don't want and acquire more of what I want. I'll comment on how I discovered the book and what was helpful in reading it.'

A review, a positive review, was what helped me get this book. Reviews have been a huge toxic source of accumulating clutter and junk. A good review of something bad. This was not the case. This was a great review of something invaluable.

In that review, the person suggested to reread sections and normally I just try to get through material as quickly as possibly for the reward finishing it. However, with this book I realized it was extremely well-written, I liked the author, and most importantly I had saught to have knowledge of and to understand the content for a very long time, many years, but had never had a good resource, the focus and/or the time. I had the time, I had the focus, and this book was the resource to learn logic and it's remarkable in that.

Some closing points. The length. This book is almost like a reference it has so much information it it. Yes it is pitted or depicted as merely an introduction, but it's more than that and more useful than a reference. It has all the useless "bloat" writing eliminated from it. I would never have udnerstood logical notation (and am still very much a novice in understanding that notation but rereading parts of this book will assist in increasing understanding of notation and savviness with notation). I'm on chapter 11 currently andit's one of the few books I encountered where I can FOCUS and READ it and think about it and it was rewarding to do so. So many other books are just disgusting fart-bloat-hype, where the author thinks of something catchy and the author puts that on a cover or subtitle and peopel buy it. If you think about that non-logic stuff (non-math, non-computer science stuff), I get angry. An example is the "Four Agreeements". Horrible book and anyone who likes that book is not a friend. "Four Agreements" is generalized "tenets" written for the illogical status quo, pop culture, throng herd masses; it's useless drivel. The anti-thesis to that book is this book, a highly useful book of logic! All the four agreements can be refuted (you have to make assumptions at times for logical reasons).

This book helped me move forward in my life. I achieved minimalism goals; it helped me accomplish things more efficiently. I am glad this book wasn't sold/marketed as a "User Manual for the Mind" because that would have been hoakey and would have brought the wrong (non-logical, pop culture, rubbish) audience, but it does help you use your mind more sharply.

This book did help me learn somethign I love: logic. I will be rereading parts of it. The length is perfect. It's not some big technical book that's impossible to read. But it's very thorough and comprenensive. I could easily see how each chapter coudl be a book in itself but it's written so well and so clearly that is unnecessary and each chapter has tons of information (and moves comprehensively and doesn't need supplementary books, too).

It covers all the notation mainly. I can alwasy refer back to that and I have it in electronic format so I can access it from anywhere, from any device.

If this was longer with more explanations and examples and exercises I wouldn't have gotten throuhg it and I wouldn't have learned the logic and logical notation. I am very interested in revisiting parts of the book and because it's so concise, that will be enjoyable; this would not be the case of it were excessively long.

I am in the process of writing a book where I provide protection for logical fallacies (which will be released on amazon.com and/or my site(s)) and this is congruent with that learning and writing.

The brevity and the thoroughness makes it desireable to read, want to finish it, and possible to finish it.

Other books would have been too long annd thus not helfpul. This book was helpful.

Not merely a reference - comprehensive and thorough - but concise enough to be used as a reference.

Short and great explanations.

No other way to learn logic.

I will reread sections and refer back to this; it may be the only book on logic I may ever need and def will likey be my main (if only, because it's so complete) on this field that has become so meaningful: logic!

Logic is hard to teach, very likely because - pace Aristotle's contention that humans are the rational animal - most people just don't naturally think that way. Which, of course, is a good reason to learn logic to begin with (just like it's good to learn the basics of probability theory, despite, indeed because, of the fact that most people are intuitively really bad at probabilities - witness the success of the gambling industry). I must admit that when I was reading Graham's book (he is a colleague at the City University of New York where I also work) my first reaction was that he was taking an unusual and not necessarily easy path in his little introduction to logic. But the more I read the more I, ahem, saw the logic of his way of structuring the subject matter, and I think it actually works quite well in the end. The book does not give the reader the impression that everything is settled in logic. On the contrary, practically every chapter ends with a twist that softens some of the conclusions just reached, along the lines of "yes, but have you considered..." Graham's spefici field in logic has to do with paradoxes and what is called paraconsistency, and you will find quite a few references to the former subject (though not the latter, which is too technical for this level of treatment). Throughout the book you will also - amusingly, I thought - encounter several proofs of the existence of god, together with a clear explanation of why they run afoul of one or another principle of logic (i.e., they don't work). The last chapter is about further readings, but don't skip it, as it also offers an interesting little history of the field, which helps the reader put everything else s/he has read so far into the broader perspective of the human quest for knowledge about what makes and does not make sense to say about the world.

Graham Priest is obviously a good teacher, for he is a clear and helpful writer, and this a highly useful and insightful little volume.

I had never formally studied logic, but needed a good clear account of two topics in particular: modus ponens and conditionals, and the slippery slope. I got them right here. For me his two chapters on these topics were the functional highlights, for they gave me the exact background knowledge I was after. But the book also provided me with good strengthener sections on material I already felt comfortable with: the liar paradox, Russell's paradox, probability, etc.

One thing that annoyed me slightly was the plethora of logician's symbols. He introduces them appropriately, but then proceeds to just deploy them afterwards without further reminders and help. So I felt I had to be turning back, searching: now what was that square box symbol? Or have my thumb inserted at p.115 so I could be constantly flicking to the list of them at the back.

But overall, a worthy purchase. Very helpful.

I got this book because I am starting a study of philosophy. It is my understanding that that in order to understand philosophy, one must understand logic.

This book was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It wasn't at all what I expected-but that's OK. It is what it is.

About the author-At first I wasn't sure if he was a completely arrogant prick, a witty, funny writer. It turns out it is the latter. Very good work on that.

My goal in reading this book was to get a general sense, so I was able to gloss over some of the deeper details-especially the mathematical parts, but I was still able to get a sense of what he was saying. I feel that if I need to, I could always go back and re-read certain parts of this book.

I am very well satisfied by this book. I recommend it to anyone trying to gain exposure to formal logic.

If you want to argue with people, understand how logic works and read this book. Great book for the money!

Very brief but powerfully effective introduction to logic. Can be used as an introduction in a college course.