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Books

Logic and its Limits by Patrick Shaw

Edward Ingram enjoys a surprisingly lively introduction to logic by Patrick Shaw.

Logic is the branch of philosophy and mathematics that addresses the structure of good arguments – arguments the conclusions of which follow from their premisses. Knowledge of logic is not only indispensable to students of philosophy but is also useful in all aspects of intelligent discourse. Unfortunately, the teaching of logic suffers from a problem. In order for the student to appreciate the delights of higher level logic (and they are delights) he or she has to wade through mountains of not so delightful stuff. This problem is not alleviated by the fact that both logic texts and the teaching of the discipline are often dull, and that the relevance of logic to practical affairs can be obscure.

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