Introduction to Logic and Its Philosophy

Introduction to Logic and Its Philosophy is an introductory level textbook which covers symbolic logic as well as many topics in the philosophy of logic. The book is suitable for either a one or two semester course at the introductory level but contains material of interest to a wider audience. The treatment of formal semantics is quite different from the standard account, as just one example. In addition, more attention is given to issues in the history of logic than one generally finds in an introductory textbook. This book represents the distillation of more than thirty years of the author's involvement with logic curriculum development and pedagogy.

Peter Schotch is currently the Munro Professor of Metaphysics in the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie university in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has published widely on many topics in philosophical logic including applications of logic in moral philosophy and epistemology. He is also regarded as one of the founders of the preservationist school of paraconsistent logic, which takes as its task the construction of a theory of how to reason from inconsistent data. In a recent review of the book, Professor Judith Pelham says: Peter Schotch's book Introduction to Logic and its Philosophy sounds a new chord amidst the cacophony of introductory logic texts. The central role of inference rules and the relation of "following from" receive great emphasis. This is plain in the presentation: from the ordering of the introductory chapters, to the style of completeness proof undertaken in the metatheory section. The notion of an inference rule is also of central importance in the chapter devoted to philosophy of logic. I hasten to add that apart from that chapter (Chapter 6) issues in the philosophy of logic are liberally sprinkled throughout the book. The discussion is forceful and engaging, and raises questions that will, in my experience, resonate with students at the introductory and more advanced levels alike. Judith Pelham Associate Professor of Philosophy York University.