SCHAUM'S OUTLINE OF THEORY AND PROBLEMS oF LOGIC Second Edition JOHN NOLT, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy University of Tennessee DENNIS ROHATYN, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy University of San Diego ACHILLE VARZL, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Philosophy Columbia University SCHAUM’S OUTLINE SERIES McGRAW-HILL, New York San Francisco Washington, D.C. Auckland Bogoté Caracas Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Monteal New Dethe San Juan Singapore Sydney Tokyo TorontoJOHN NOLT is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he has taught since receiving his doctorate from Ohio State University in 1978. He is the author of Informal Logic: Possible Worlds and Imagination and numerous articles on logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of mathematics, DENNIS ROHATYN is Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego, where he has taught since 1977. He is the author of Tivo Dogmas of Philosophy, The Reluctant Naturalist, and many other works. He is a regular symposiast on critical thinking at national and regional conferences. In 1987 he founded the Society for Orwellian Studies. ACHILLE VARZI is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, New York. His works include Holes and Other Superficialties and Fifty Years of Events: An Annotated Bibliography (both with Roberto Casati) and numerous articles on logic, formal semantics, and analytic metaphysics. Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Loaic Copyright © 1998, 198% by The MoGraw- Hill Companies, ne, All rights reserve, Printed in ‘the United States of America. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 197K, no part ‘ofthis publication may be reproduced or dseibuted in any forms or by any Means, or stored Jin a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission ofthe publisher. 23456789 M11 12 19 14 15 16 17 1 19 20 PRS PRS 921098 ISBN 0.07-866549-1 Sponsoring Editor: Barbara Gilson Production Supervisor: Pamela Pelton Ealing Supervisor: Maureen B, Walker Project Supervision: Keyword Publishing Services Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nott dota Bac ‘Schau’ oulne of theory and problems of logic Joh Nolt Dennis Rohstya, — 2nd et. . cm, — (Schaum's outline seis) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0.07.086689-1 1 Logte-Outines, abi ete. 1. Rohatya, Dennis A. Tee CIE NGS 1998 160".2°02—ac21 99-2888 cr McGraw-Hill A Division of The McGraw Hull CompariPreface ‘The roots of logic may be traced to Aristotle, who systematized and codified the subject in a way that was not significantly surpassed for over two millennia. Modern logic, however, stems largely from the work of the German philosopher Gottlob Frege in the late nineteenth century, and has developed tremendously during the twentieth century. Today logic has applications in many areas besides philosophy, including mathematics, linguistics, engineering, and computer science. The aim of this book is to serve as an introduction and reference text to students in all these related fields. We begin by examining reasoning as it occurs informally in writing and conversation. In so doing, we have occasion to introduce some of the central concepts of logic (such as argument, validity, truth, evidence) while avoiding technicalities. Chapter 1 concerns structural (syntactic) matters, and Chapter 2 presents some fundamental semantic concepts along with basic criteria for argu ‘ment evaluation Chapters 3 and 4 introduce the most elementary system of formal logic, propositional logic, from the semantic point of view (truth tables and refutation {rees) and from the syntactic or deductive point of view (the propositional calculus), respectively. Chapter 5 covers the logic of categorical statements, the modern ‘descendant of Aristotle's logical theory. Predicate logic, which is Frege’s brainchild, forms the subject of Chapters 6 and 7. This is an overarching system which unifies and extends the systems of the three previous chapters, and is the core ofall modern logic. Again we consider it first from a semantic and then from a deductive point of view (the predicate calculus). In Chapters 8 and 9 we return to an informal standpoint to consider common fallacies in reasoning and some important forms of inductive (probabilistic) argument. Chapter 10 treats probability more rigorously, laying out the axioms and ‘major theorems of the probability calculus. Finally, Chapter 11 sketches some ways in which predicate logic itself can be strengthened or generalized, We consider, among other things, its expressive limitations, its extensions to stronger systems (higher-order and modal logics), and its application to arithmetic and to the theory of definitions. The book presupposes no previous acquaintance with the subject and may be used as a text for an introductory course, as a problem supplement to other texts, or as a guide for self-study. As a textbook, there is more material here than can be covered in a single course, and some omission will generally be necessary. All later chapters presuppose the concepts introduced in Chapters 1 and 2, so that these two chapters are indispensable, Thereafter, however, a good bit of flexibility is possible. The following table indicates dependencies that should be taken into account in planning a course: Chapter Presupposes Chapier(s) 3 i 1 1 i