The Power of Logic

by Howard-Snyder, Frances; Howard-Snyder, Daniel; Wasserman, Ryan

• ISBN13: 9780073407371
• ISBN10: 0073407372
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-30
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

This brief and flexible introductory level text is designed to illustrate the power of logic as a tool for critical thinking in various facets of life by increasing students' ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments.The Power of Logicprovides balanced coverage of informal logic, traditional categorical logic, and modern symbolic logic. The authors' direct and accessible writing style, along with a wealth of relevant examples and imaginative exercises, make this an ideal text for today's logic classes.

Table of Contents

Basic Concepts

Validity and Soundness

Forms and Validity

Counterexamples and Invalidity

Strength and Cogency

Identifying Arguments

Arguments and Nonarguments

Well-Crafted Arguments

Argument Diagrams

Logic and Language

Logic, Meaning, and Emotive Force

Definitions

Using Definitions to Evaluate Arguments

Informal Fallacies

Fallacies of Irrelevance

Fallacies Involving Ambiguity

Fallacies Involving Unwarranted Assumptions

Categorical Logic: Statements

Standard Forms of Categorical Statements

The Traditional Square of Opposition

Further Immediate Inferences

Categorical Logic: Syllogisms

Standard Form, Mood, and Figure

Venn Diagrams and Categorical Statements

Venn Diagrams and Categorical Syllogisms

The Modern Square of Opposition

Enthymemes

Sorites and Removing Term-Complements

Rules for Evaluating Syllogisms

Statement Logic: Truth Tables

Symbolizing English Arguments

Truth Tables

Using Truth Tables to Evaluate Arguments

Abbreviated Truth Tables

Logically Significant Categories and Relationships

Statement Logic: Proofs

Implicational Rules of Inference

Five Equivalence Rules

Five More Equivalence Rules

Conditional Proof

Reductio ad Absurdum

Proving Theorems

Predicate Logic

Predicates and Quantifiers

Demonstrating Invalidity

Constructing Proofs

Quantifier Negation, RAA, and CP

The Logic of Relations: Symbolizations

The Logic of Relations: Proofs

Identity: Symbolizations

Identity: Proofs

Induction

Inductive and Deductive Logic: Contrasts and Clarifications

Arguments from Authority and Induction by Enumeration

Mill's Methods and Scientific Reasoning

Arguments from Analogy

Probability

Three Theories of Probability

The Rules of Probability

Bayes' Theorem

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