Book recommendation on basic logic

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Zarathustra
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Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

I am planning to start learning on Logic and Philosophy of Language.
Are there good recommended books on the subject? Thanks.
Averroes
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Averroes »

Zarathustra wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:01 pm I am planning to start learning on Logic and Philosophy of Language.
Are there good recommended books on the subject? Thanks.
Logic is very important not just for philosophy but for a healthy mind in this technological and information age, logic is a survival tool, no less than that. However, for your purposes namely the philosophy of language, I would recommend to you Modern Logic by Graeme Forbes. Here is a link to a free copy on scribd: https://www.scribd.com/doc/140431270/Gr ... dern-Logic

The first 300 pages or so is classical logic and what you should be studying. Intuitionistic logic, Modal logic and fuzzy logic you can brush them under the carpet for the time being!
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

Thanks for your recommendation. I got a couple of Symbolic Logic books from Amazon. They are old books from 1990s, were dirt cheap and seem OK.
I hate logic, but some philosophy books have the logical symbols in the content, without the knowledge of the symbols, cannot be understood. So, it is reluctant readings. Not quite sure if Logic knowledge would be actually useful at all in real life for practicality.
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Zarathustra wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:30 pm Thanks for your recommendation. I got a couple of Symbolic Logic books from Amazon. They are old books from 1990s, were dirt cheap and seem OK.
I hate logic, but some philosophy books have the logical symbols in the content, without the knowledge of the symbols, cannot be understood. So, it is reluctant readings. Not quite sure if Logic knowledge would be actually useful at all in real life for practicality.
I can propose a simple test: Take a look at any thread Veritable Arquebus has created in the ethical theory sub (there's soooo many). If you can't describe a single fatal logical mistake in every single one, there's every good reason to read up on logic, because he is a complete window licking hump and every arument he's ever presented is deductively invalid.

The book I linked runs through this stuff without getting overly formal excessively fast. The symbols themselves are largely beside the point, this one ¬ is no different to this one ! which doesn't mean what you would think when it is placed in !front of something instead of behind! Seriously, there's about 10 of these things that you ever really see and you can look them up here as required.

I personally have forgotten more of this subject than I remember, but I usually get by when I am reading Hilary Putnam and the likes just because there's usually just enough surrounding explanation for me to follow this sort of thing. The patterns of the logic matter more than the arbitrary symbols. Also half the scary looking stuff isn't usually symbolic logic, it's just Greek letters representing some assertion or predicate in an imaginary language.
Averroes
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Averroes »

Zarathustra wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:30 pm Thanks for your recommendation. I got a couple of Symbolic Logic books from Amazon. They are old books from 1990s, were dirt cheap and seem OK.
Check if your books have about the same contents as the book I linked you to. By "modern" we mean after 1900 to contrast it with Aristotelian logic which dates back to about 400 BCE!
Zarathustra wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:30 pm I hate logic, but some philosophy books have the logical symbols in the content, without the knowledge of the symbols, cannot be understood. So, it is reluctant readings. Not quite sure if Logic knowledge would be actually useful at all in real life for practicality.
Read and practice the exercises. Go slowly. Do not expect to grasp everything in one reading. It's much like learning a new language. For practicality in daily life, it depends. For example, for mathematicians and programmers, it is their bread and butter.
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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Sun Aug 22, 2021 5:58 pm An Introduction to Formal Logic
https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/s ... ?format=PB
Yeah, I downloaded this book for free as PDF. It looks a very clearly written book. Thanks for the info.
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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

Averroes wrote: Sun Aug 22, 2021 9:15 am
Zarathustra wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:01 pm I am planning to start learning on Logic and Philosophy of Language.
Are there good recommended books on the subject? Thanks.
Logic is very important not just for philosophy but for a healthy mind in this technological and information age, logic is a survival tool, no less than that. However, for your purposes namely the philosophy of language, I would recommend to you Modern Logic by Graeme Forbes. Here is a link to a free copy on scribd: https://www.scribd.com/doc/140431270/Gr ... dern-Logic

The first 300 pages or so is classical logic and what you should be studying. Intuitionistic logic, Modal logic and fuzzy logic you can brush them under the carpet for the time being!
The site is forcing to sign up for free download. I hate signing up for these sites on the internet. I never sign up.
So was not able to download it, but it looks also a very good book too. Thanks.
Will see if I could buy one online for cheap.
Averroes
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Averroes »

Zarathustra wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:38 am
Averroes wrote: Sun Aug 22, 2021 9:15 am
Zarathustra wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:01 pm I am planning to start learning on Logic and Philosophy of Language.
Are there good recommended books on the subject? Thanks.
Logic is very important not just for philosophy but for a healthy mind in this technological and information age, logic is a survival tool, no less than that. However, for your purposes namely the philosophy of language, I would recommend to you Modern Logic by Graeme Forbes. Here is a link to a free copy on scribd: https://www.scribd.com/doc/140431270/Gr ... dern-Logic

The first 300 pages or so is classical logic and what you should be studying. Intuitionistic logic, Modal logic and fuzzy logic you can brush them under the carpet for the time being!
The site is forcing to sign up for free download. I hate signing up for these sites on the internet. I never sign up.
So was not able to download it, but it looks also a very good book too. Thanks.
Will see if I could buy one online for cheap.
I understand. Scribd is a file sharing site. There are many other resources on Scribd that I got for free and these resources were available nowhere else. The signing up is free. I had since found it very beneficial to have signed up to it. Besides, if I had to buy every book that I read or referenced, I would have been broke long ago! But for Modern Logic I did buy a hard copy when file sharing on the internet was not yet an option!
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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

Averroes wrote: Wed Aug 25, 2021 4:52 am
I understand. Scribd is a file sharing site. There are many other resources on Scribd that I got for free and these resources were available nowhere else. The signing up is free. I had since found it very beneficial to have signed up to it. Besides, if I had to buy every book that I read or referenced, I would have been broke long ago! But for Modern Logic I did buy a hard copy when file sharing on the internet was not yet an option!
All these internet sites keep pestering you to sign up, and pop up with the Cookie setup wherever you go is as bad as pandemic I feel. Internet is not safe place at all. And mostly it is for the commercial purpose. It is so bad. Even that Archive site, which used to offer Free Downloads, now seem to have gone commercial. They have now handful of FREE downloads but most of them are now for sales only basis. Even their Preview is now a few pages only. It just getting more and more commercialised in internet. OK, I understand they must have revenue to run the sites too, fine. But what I am talking as bad is the trends that which used to be many FREE download sites in the past, but seeing them all turning to the commercial sites.

But I was able to buy the book hardcopy from eBay for 4 euros, which was good price. It is on my way, and am looking forward to it.
Thanks for your recommendation of the book. It sounds a really good Logic book indeed.
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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 10:23 pm
The symbols themselves are largely beside the point, this one ¬ is no different to this one ! which doesn't mean what you would think when it is placed in !front of something instead of behind! Seriously, there's about 10 of these things that you ever really see and you can look them up here as required.

I personally have forgotten more of this subject than I remember, but I usually get by when I am reading Hilary Putnam and the likes just because there's usually just enough surrounding explanation for me to follow this sort of thing. The patterns of the logic matter more than the arbitrary symbols. Also half the scary looking stuff isn't usually symbolic logic, it's just Greek letters representing some assertion or predicate in an imaginary language.
How do you type those logical symbols? I cannot see any of those symbols on my keyboard.
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Zarathustra wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 1:50 pm
FlashDangerpants wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 10:23 pm
The symbols themselves are largely beside the point, this one ¬ is no different to this one ! which doesn't mean what you would think when it is placed in !front of something instead of behind! Seriously, there's about 10 of these things that you ever really see and you can look them up here as required.

I personally have forgotten more of this subject than I remember, but I usually get by when I am reading Hilary Putnam and the likes just because there's usually just enough surrounding explanation for me to follow this sort of thing. The patterns of the logic matter more than the arbitrary symbols. Also half the scary looking stuff isn't usually symbolic logic, it's just Greek letters representing some assertion or predicate in an imaginary language.
How do you type those logical symbols? I cannot see any of those symbols on my keyboard.
That table on the wiki page I linked includes details for calling them via html and LaTeX, so if I want to use them I personally would fire up Visual Studio Code, add the latex unicode plugin and then I can call them with
⥰ "\implies"
≡ "\equiv"

But if I'm just using one every now and then, I just copy and paste the character from the web page. That is much easier. There are symbol addons for chrome too, but they mostly just offer stuff like this ... ಠᴥಠ ... which is arguably more useful.
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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:03 pm
That table on the wiki page I linked includes details for calling them via html and LaTeX, so if I want to use them I personally would fire up Visual Studio Code, add the latex unicode plugin and then I can call them with
⥰ "\implies"
≡ "\equiv"

But if I'm just using one every now and then, I just copy and paste the character from the web page. That is much easier. There are symbol addons for chrome too, but they mostly just offer stuff like this ... ಠᴥಠ ... which is arguably more useful.
Ahh... that's great. Thanks for the info.
Averroes
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Averroes »

Zarathustra wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:50 pm But I was able to buy the book hardcopy from eBay for 4 euros, which was good price. It is on my way, and am looking forward to it.
Thanks for your recommendation of the book. It sounds a really good Logic book indeed.
You are welcomed. I hope you benefit from it as I have benefitted. If I can further help, don't hesitate to ask.
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Zarathustra
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Re: Book recommendation on basic logic

Post by Zarathustra »

Averroes wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:34 am
Zarathustra wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:50 pm But I was able to buy the book hardcopy from eBay for 4 euros, which was good price. It is on my way, and am looking forward to it.
Thanks for your recommendation of the book. It sounds a really good Logic book indeed.
You are welcomed. I hope you benefit from it as I have benefitted. If I can further help, don't hesitate to ask.
The book has arrived in very nice condition. It is a real nice book in that it covers both symbolic logic and modal logic too, and the content seems really clearly written. Thank you again for your recommendation of this book which is excellent.
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