Beginning Logic

by E.J. Lemmon

Book Overview

"One of the most careful and intensive among the introductory texts that can be used with a wide range of students. It builds remarkably sophisticated technical skills, a good sense of the nature of a formal system, and a solid and extensive background for more advanced work in logic. . . . The emphasis throughout is on natural deduction derivations, and the text's deductive systems are its greatest strength. Lemmon's unusual procedure of presenting...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0915144506
• ISBN13: 9780915144501
• Release Date: June 1978
• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company
• Length: 235 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Not for dummies!!

I have got to admit, this is a very difficult book to follow. It is higher order logic--very difficult material for most people to grasp--hard for me and I tutored it. This book may have been impossible for me to learn from on my own--I bought it for use in a class, and used it with assistance from a logician. There are a few out there who will be able to learn it on their own with this book--but not many. For most, this will be torture! But if you love logic and get it, then this book will be great for you!

Beginning Logic

For those who are interested in learning the basics of propositional calculus, this is a fantastic book. It's a little difficult to understand however once you master the concepts, the text becomes much easier to read. I recomend this book to anyone interested in learning how to think.

Excellent logical system.

While there is currently a variety of logical systems about, Lemmon's is well balanced and fairly intuitive. His approach is to limit his formal system to a few simple rules. The advantage is that it makes his meta-logic much easier, and the reader can grasp the whole system very quickly. The downside it that the system becomes cumbersome when trying to prove more difficult problems. To help simplify the longer proofs, Lemmon provides a list of already proven theorems, which one can substitute into the proof. His approach is elegant, and in my view, successful. While the text tends to be dense, his liberal use of examples clarifies many of the finer points. Still, the reader does have to work at it so I cannot recommend this text to beginning logic students. Davis' "Introduction to Logic" is much more straightforward, and much simpler. However, for serious students of logic, with a solid analytical background, or a good foundation in mathematics, this text provides a very good logical system.

Excellently comprehensive.

A great book of predicate and simple quantifier logic. VERY complete, includes nice examples in English translation and in logic. It also has practice problems after each section. However, it is dense, and unless you have someone who can help clarify concepts for you, this book can become confusing and difficult. Overall, a very good logic book.

Excellent book

I read the Italian translation of this book, and it was really great experience. It helps me a lot in my daily work and is really a good book. One could expect that a new edition of this useful booklet would include the programs used for the Appendix, theorem proofs.