Logic and Its Limits

Shaw's "Logic and its Limits" is an excellent self-study text. It is clearly written and it succeeds in making logic enjoyable and understandable. Every significant point in the book is followed by excercises, which are answered in an appendix at the end of the book. Any student of philosophy would profit from working through the book.

This book is a good, common sense discussion of logic for a layperson such as myself. Several examples of bad reasoning even come from another logic book, i.e. 'Thinking Straight'! However, I think Shaw is correct in his criticisms, which shows even academics in logic can make mistakes.I particularly like how he addressed a death penalty argument. It is often pointed out that foes of the death penalty wouldn't feel that way for the killers of their own family. Shaw points out that even if this was true, those people may later regret a decision that they made in anger, so this argument falls apart.The material necessarily makes the reading a little dry, but the effort is worthwhile.