Symbolic Logic Author:Irving M. Copi Inside Flap: — Like its highly successful predecessor, the second edition of SYMBOLIC LOGIC is distinguished by Professor Copi's extraordinary facility for clear, complete and orderly explanation. — Many of the changes in this revision have been introduced with a view to making the book equally suitable for students with or without prior courses i... more »n logic. The more advanced topics are reserved for the final chapters and the appendices, for those who have had traditional logic previously.
There are nearly 300 new exercises in this edition. Solutions to about 25% of all exercises are included at the end of the book to facilitate the student's mastery of them when working outside the classroom.
As logic was discussed by Aristotle from two different points of view, so the author of SYMBOLIC LOGIC has provided two distinct approaches to the subject. The first half of the book presents the standard notations, methods, and principles of symbolic logic for use in determining the validity and invalidity of arguments. Thus it explains symbolic logic as an instrument for analysis and deduction. A great many exercises have been provided to help in acquiring a practical mastery of the material. The balance of the book contains a more systematic treatment of the logical principles used in the first half. It deals with the principles and methods of symbolic logic as interesting and important in themselves and apart from their uses. This is done in terms of the construction and examination of logistic systems.
New material in this revised edition includes:
-an alternative way of writing our truth tables
-proof on incompleteness of the first set of natural deduction rules
-proof of the independence of the R. S. axioms
-solutions to selected exercises, given in the back of the book
Of special significance in this edition is an improved statement of the quantification rules which makes them both easier to understand and easier to apply. This permits simpler proofs of validity for some arguments.
Controversial philosophical questions are not allowed to intrude in SYMBOLIC LOGIC, Second Edition. The entire book is written from a philosophically neutral point of view. Professor Copi uses the widely accepted Whitehead-Russell notation.