Elements of Reasoning

by Ronald Munson and David A. Conway

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0534121632
• ISBN13: 9780534121631
• Release Date: December 1990
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Interesting even if you're not taking a Philosophy class!

This book really makes you think about what you believe and what reality really is. It challenges your way of thinking on so many levels. It helps you learn to argue a point or realize a point you believed can't be true or that you don't have the evidence to determine it to be true or false. Interesting read. Answers to odd #ed exercises in the back are helpful in determining if you have mastered the concepts or not.

How every logic book should be: concise and brief

For a Logic class, this was assigned to me and I was surprised at how thin this book was. Usually, I would envision a gigantic textbook for such a dense topic. However, this book was very concise and brief, and generally, I was able to grasp the concepts. Learning should be concise, especially like we all use to in grammar school. Insightful, brief, and easy to understand. Overall, buy, read, and learn this book with confidence!

Good, quick introduction to logic

Munson and Conway do a very fine job in this little text, introducing the subject matter of logic with enough detail to get you started. There are, of course, lots of textbooks out there that go into lots more detail. But this one is about right if you want to pick it up and cover the basics on your own. You learn what an argument is and how to recognize them and analyze them, what the basic types of arguments are (deductive and inductive) and how they differ and how to assess each type for its success as an inductive argument and for its validity as a deductive argument. There is coverage of basic propositional logic and proofs, and coverage of categorical syllogisms and Venn diagrams. There are chapters on fallacies (though I have a minor quibble with them on which fallacies to include in an intro text, the chapter does give a good overview), on probabilistic reasoning, on causal reasoning, and on writing logically. I assign this one as a basic text in my introduction to logic course -- largely because I can't see the point of assigning a big textbook that will cost them $90 when this one covers what I need, and I can supplement it with other materials of my own choosing. One advantage you would get from some of the more expensive texts (e.g. Hurley or Copi's introductory textbooks) is access to a computer based program that can guide you through problems. Otherwise, in terms of coverage and clarity, this text works quite well.

A good introductory book on the daily application of logic.

While this book presents standard forms of logic, it real strength lies in its application to everyday common sense, logic. I especially enjoyed the thorough exposition on how to recognize fallacious reasonings.