The Elements of Reasoning

Munson and Conway do a very fine job in this little text, introducing the subject matter of logic with enough detail to get you started. There are, of course, lots of textbooks out there that go into lots more detail. But this one is about right if you want to pick it up and cover the basics on your own. You learn what an argument is and how to recognize them and analyze them, what the basic types of arguments are (deductive and inductive) and how they differ and how to assess each type for its success as an inductive argument and for its validity as a deductive argument. There is coverage of basic propositional logic and proofs, and coverage of categorical syllogisms and Venn diagrams. There are chapters on fallacies (though I have a minor quibble with them on which fallacies to include in an intro text, the chapter does give a good overview), on probabilistic reasoning, on causal reasoning, and on writing logically. I assign this one as a basic text in my introduction to logic course -- largely because I can't see the point of assigning a big textbook that will cost them $90 when this one covers what I need, and I can supplement it with other materials of my own choosing. One advantage you would get from some of the more expensive texts (e.g. Hurley or Copi's introductory textbooks) is access to a computer based program that can guide you through problems. Otherwise, in terms of coverage and clarity, this text works quite well.

While this book presents standard forms of logic, it real strength lies in its application to everyday common sense, logic. I especially enjoyed the thorough exposition on how to recognize fallacious reasonings.