An introductory course in Symbolic Logic, covering Truth Tables, Truth Trees, Natural Deduction, and Quantifier Logic, designed for students with no previous logic training. Logic is excellent... More > preparation for the study of law, math, computer science and languages.< Less
This is a Critical Thinking text designed for a one-semester course. It takes a formal , as opposed to an informal, approach. Approximately 80% of the text is devoted to deductive logic. I focus... More > on formal logic because it teaches and develops the fundamental rules of human reason, of which Informal Logic is an application.
At the same time, the deductive or formal instruction here has been simplified for students without any previous logic training. In Categorical Logic, I discuss only Venn Diagrams, since they are a fast and efficient tool for analyzing arguments. In Sentential Logic, I have limited the operations to negation, conjunction, disjunction and conditional. In Natural Deduction, I have pared down the set of derivation rules to a small set sufficient to illustrate and teach the basic rules of deduction.
This text, then, strikes a useful balance between overly informal and overly formal approaches to critical thinking.< Less
Introduction to Philosophy: A Guided Tour, is a self-guided tour through some of the most famous and influential philosophy texts in human history. Rather than explain the texts from afar, Dr. Kern... More > engages the reader in an intertextual journey, introducing each text minimally, then supplying commentary and questions alongside the original work. As a result, readers are guided through a personal interaction with our greatest philosophers and encouraged to form their own interpretations and responses, thus entering into the philosophical process itself, and learning to be philosophers by actually philosophizing. This is a journey of learning and adventure!< Less
An introductory course in Symbolic Logic, covering Truth Tables, Truth Trees, Natural Deduction, and Quantifier Logic, designed for students with no previous logic training. Logic is excellent... More > preparation for the study of law, math, computer science and languages.< Less
