An Invitation to Formal Reasoning: The Logic of Terms - Hardcover

Sommers, Fred; Englebretsen, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754613666 ISBN 13: 9780754613664

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

An Invitation to Formal Reasoning introduces the discipline of formal logic by means of a powerful new system formulated by Fred Sommers. This system, term logic, is different in a number of ways from the standard system employed in modern logic; most striking is its greater simplicity and naturalness. Based on a radically different theory of logical syntax than the one Frege used when initiating modern mathematical logic in the 19th Century, term logic borrows insights from Aristotle's syllogistic, Scholastic logicians, Leibniz, and the 19th century British algebraists. Term logic takes its syntax directly from natural language, construing statements as combinations of pairs of terms, where complex terms are taken to have the same syntax as statements. Whereas standard logic requires extensive 'translation' from natural language to symbolic language, term logic requires only 'transcription' into the symbolic language. Its naturalness is the result of its ability to stay close to the forms of sentences usually found in every day discourse. Written by the founders of the term logic approach, An Invitation to Formal Reasoning is a unique introduction and exploration of this new system, offering numerous exercises and examples throughout the text. Summarising the standard system of mathematical logic to set term logic in context, and showing how the two systems compare, this book presents an alternative approach to standard modern logic for those studying formal logic, philosophy of language or computer theory. Fred Sommers is Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University, USA; George Englebretsen is Professor of Philosophy, Bishop's University, Canada.

About this title

About the Author

Fred Sommers, Brandeis University, USA and George Englebretsen, Bishop's University, Canada

Review

'Authored by the two foremost authorities on this subject, it is an up-to-date definitive statement of terminist philosophy... On balance, this book is stimulating and thought-provoking. It would be an interesting experience to use it to teach an introductory course in formal logic. In addition to the copious examples, the book contains after each section a set of exercises to test comprehension.' The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0754613666
• ISBN 13: 9780754613664
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280