- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Logic
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Logic for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'A lively and stimulating book' Philosophy
Product Description
If a man supports Arsenal one day and Spurs the next then he is fickle but not necessarily illogical. From this starting point, and assuming no previous knowledge of logic, Wilfrid Hodges takes the reader through the whole gamut of logical expressions in a simple and lively way. Readers who are more mathematically adventurous will find optional sections introducing rather more challenging material. 'A lively and stimulating book' Philosophy
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Logic can be defined as the study of consistent sets of beliefs; this will be our starting-point. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Logic can be defined as the study of consistent sets of beliefs; this will be our starting-point. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've been working through this book independently, including all of its exercises, and I'm most of the way through. While it might not be perfect, I would definitely recommend it.
It covers many of the basics of modern logic, and serves as a good introduction for anyone, student or layman. I believe it was used for many years, and until very recently, as the set text for Oxford's first year logic course for philosophy students; so it's very reliable. One cannot really learn logic without doing exercises, so this book has a small set of exercises for every topic; if you're looking for something more discursive and readable, this might be the wrong choice. Working alone I have not found it overly difficult - in fact it's good fun - but it must be approached as a course of study rather than the way you might approach a popular science book. You won't be reading ABOUT logic - you'll be DOING logic.
There are a few things to bear in mind:
It tries to be two things at once - a layman's introduction and a textbook - and in some ways fails at both. For those studying independently there are some sticking points: just where one would hope to find much more discussion and easing in - such as the sections on formalization - you find impenetrable proofs written out in English. Minimizing the mathematics here only succeeds in confusing the reader (though maybe it was just me). And as a textbook it is also somewhat lacking, in that its small paperback format makes it difficult to work with: you'll struggle to keep it open while you've got a pencil in your other hand, and it necessitates constant flicking back and forth. I would have preferred a large format text with extensive glossary, appendices, lists of symbols and rules, all easily accessible at the back. Also, to properly learn logic you'll need more exercises than are in here.
The book uses the tableau method rather than natural deduction. I'm not experienced enough to know which is best, but in my dealings with students and philosophers it seems that the latter is favoured, especially in the context of philosophy; and it might also be worth noting that at Oxford they are moving to natural deduction for their introductory course.
The book doesn't make much of an effort to place logic in the context of philosophy, and it seems to have been written from the perspective of an overly efficient logician-mathematician rather than a philosopher. Of course, this is not an important criticism if it is used as a textbook, but if you want some background and context you'll need to supplement it with something else.
If you're looking for an introduction to critical thinking, informal logic, logical fallacies, and techniques for debate, this is not the right book. It is specifically aimed as an introduction to modern symbolic logic as it is taught academically today.
The sections on formalization can be skipped, it says, but I chose not to. I found that these sections were very hurried, and the procedures made little sense; I kept thinking "but you should explain WHY you're doing this".
Despite all this, it does achieve a balance that probably few other books achieve, between approachability for the inexperienced or those working alone, and actual utility for learning. I have stuck with it and have found it to be a good introduction to the subject.
It covers many of the basics of modern logic, and serves as a good introduction for anyone, student or layman. I believe it was used for many years, and until very recently, as the set text for Oxford's first year logic course for philosophy students; so it's very reliable. One cannot really learn logic without doing exercises, so this book has a small set of exercises for every topic; if you're looking for something more discursive and readable, this might be the wrong choice. Working alone I have not found it overly difficult - in fact it's good fun - but it must be approached as a course of study rather than the way you might approach a popular science book. You won't be reading ABOUT logic - you'll be DOING logic.
There are a few things to bear in mind:
It tries to be two things at once - a layman's introduction and a textbook - and in some ways fails at both. For those studying independently there are some sticking points: just where one would hope to find much more discussion and easing in - such as the sections on formalization - you find impenetrable proofs written out in English. Minimizing the mathematics here only succeeds in confusing the reader (though maybe it was just me). And as a textbook it is also somewhat lacking, in that its small paperback format makes it difficult to work with: you'll struggle to keep it open while you've got a pencil in your other hand, and it necessitates constant flicking back and forth. I would have preferred a large format text with extensive glossary, appendices, lists of symbols and rules, all easily accessible at the back. Also, to properly learn logic you'll need more exercises than are in here.
The book uses the tableau method rather than natural deduction. I'm not experienced enough to know which is best, but in my dealings with students and philosophers it seems that the latter is favoured, especially in the context of philosophy; and it might also be worth noting that at Oxford they are moving to natural deduction for their introductory course.
The book doesn't make much of an effort to place logic in the context of philosophy, and it seems to have been written from the perspective of an overly efficient logician-mathematician rather than a philosopher. Of course, this is not an important criticism if it is used as a textbook, but if you want some background and context you'll need to supplement it with something else.
If you're looking for an introduction to critical thinking, informal logic, logical fallacies, and techniques for debate, this is not the right book. It is specifically aimed as an introduction to modern symbolic logic as it is taught academically today.
The sections on formalization can be skipped, it says, but I chose not to. I found that these sections were very hurried, and the procedures made little sense; I kept thinking "but you should explain WHY you're doing this".
Despite all this, it does achieve a balance that probably few other books achieve, between approachability for the inexperienced or those working alone, and actual utility for learning. I have stuck with it and have found it to be a good introduction to the subject.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
...I had to start somewhere. There are plenty of examples throughout and exercises to do. More importantly the majority of the answers are in the back of the book for those of us who are more perplexed.
Admittingly some of the methods seem perhaps a bit dated but this is still a good book to have to start you off. Just enough to raise your game but easy enough for beginners to get a grasp of. Of course if you do get into logic properly though this only really scratches the surface.
Admittingly some of the methods seem perhaps a bit dated but this is still a good book to have to start you off. Just enough to raise your game but easy enough for beginners to get a grasp of. Of course if you do get into logic properly though this only really scratches the surface.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Logic can be a funny and confusing subject, but this is the introduction I used for the first year of my degree course. There are different Logic systems out there, and if you're being taught you'll have to consult your syllabus - obviously this is only any good if doing Hodges' Logic, not, for example, Newton-Smith's.
I found this a good clear introduction for someone with no background in philosophy. Obviously not the most advanced text, but a simple introduction for beginners with definitions and plenty of question sets for you to try (answers in the back).
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A new realm of beauty
I had begun to read Grayling's An Introduction to Philosophical Logic, but it soon became apparent that I would need more than the hazy logic I had picked up over my years in... Read more
Published 3 months ago by John Ferngrove
One for the devoted fans and hard-working students of logic
This old-fashioned book is a more formal look at Logic, and its transcription into symbols and constituents in order to evaluate the truth and validity of paragraphs. Read more
Published on 9 May 2004 by "rubinwest"
An excellent introduction
Wilfrid Hodges' book is a comprehensive introduction to its subject, it's attractive presentation making the complexities and abstract qualities of his themes far more accessible. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2002 by Mr. SDL Cane
An excellent introduction to formal logic.
Presuming no prior knowledge neither of philosophy nor logic, Hodges' book is an excellent, non technical, introduction to the subject. Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2002 by "yalbadaoth"
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
