Logic Primer, third edition

The new edition of a comprehensive and rigorous but concise introduction to symbolic logic.

Logic Primer offers a comprehensive and rigorous introduction to symbolic logic, providing concise definitions of key concepts, illustrative examples, and exercises. After presenting the definitions of validity and soundness, the book goes on to introduce a formal language, proof theory, and formal semantics for sentential logic (chapters 1–3) and for first-order predicate logic (chapters 4–6) with identity (chapter 7). For this third edition, the material has been reorganized from four chapters into seven, increasing the modularity of the text and enabling teachers to choose alternative paths through the book. New exercises have been added, and all exercises are now arranged to support students moving from easier to harder problems.
 
Its spare and elegant treatment makes Logic Primer unique among textbooks. It presents the material with minimal chattiness, allowing students to proceed more directly from topic to topic and leaving instructors free to cover the subject matter in the way that best suits their students. The book includes more than thirty exercise sets, with answers to many of them provided in an appendix. The book’s website allows students to enter and check proofs, truth tables, and other exercises interactively.

Colin Allen is Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He is coauthor of Species of Mind and coeditor of Nature’s Purposes and The Cognitive Animal, all published by the MIT Press. Michael Hand is Professor of Philosophy at Texas A&M University.
 

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
1 Sentential Logic: Basic Concepts and a Formal Language 1 
2 Sentential Logic: Proofs 17
3 Sentential Logic: Truth Tables 37
4 Predicate Logic: Formal Language 51
5 Predicate Logic: Proofs 65
6 Predicate Logic: Models 77
7 Predicate Logic with Identity 91
A Appendix: Answers to Selected Exercises 101