Deductive Logic

Stock, St. George William Joseph, 1850-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 428K words
Chapters: 43

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Deductive Logic by St. George William Joseph StockAuthor: Stock, St. George William Joseph, 1850-,Language: English, Class: BC: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Logic, Release Date: Sep 1, 2004

Editor's review

This book is an introductory reader in deductive logic by St. George William Joseph Stock, a foundational textbook in logic. It is organized around the basic forms of concept, judgment, and inference, with emphasis on syllogism and its rules, analysis of fallacies, and other core topics of deductive logic. The structure is clear, the definitions are precise, and the style is typical of nineteenth-century logic textbooks. Its value lies in its systematic presentation of the basic framework of formal logic; it is suitable as a first English-language reader for beginners in logic, and also for readers who need to review traditional logical terminology. Read it slowly and take notes, matching rules to examples; when encountering terminology, first build a Chinese-English glossary. Note that the book was written early and does not cover the development of modern mathematical logic; readers who wish to learn contemporary logic should supplement it with a modern textbook.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Beginners with no background in formal logic who want to build a foundation
Liberal arts students who need to review syllogisms and traditional logical terminology
Debate and writing enthusiasts who want to improve their argument analysis skills
Readers who want to study logic through an English-language textbook

Not a good fit for

Readers who want to learn modern mathematical logic and symbolic methods
Test-takers who need extensive contemporary exercises and exam practice
Readers with limited patience for English terminology who only want a quick overview of logic

Reading tips

Read chapters in order, and after each section restate the core definitions in your own words
Build a checklist of syllogistic rules as you read and verify each one against the book's examples
Make a Chinese-English glossary of technical terms first, then return to the original text to deepen understanding
After each chapter, devise two or three everyday arguments of your own and test their validity with the rules you have learned

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for learning logic from scratch?

It works well as an introduction to traditional deductive logic. The book starts from basic concepts and is clearly defined and well structured, but it carries the expository style of a nineteenth-century textbook. Complete beginners need to read slowly and patiently, taking notes and working through examples, to grasp core content such as syllogisms.

Does the book cover modern logic?

No. It is a traditional formal logic textbook focused on classic content such as concepts, judgments, syllogisms, and fallacies, and does not systematically cover the symbolic methods of modern mathematical logic. If you want to study contemporary logic, supplement this book with a modern logic textbook after finishing it.

Is the English original difficult to read?

The language is generally plain, but there is a great deal of logical terminology and the example sentences reflect their era. Build a Chinese-English glossary of terms first, read slowly chapter by chapter, and when you encounter long examples, break them into premises and conclusion. This will noticeably reduce the difficulty.

Do I need to do the exercises in this book?

Yes, it is recommended. The rules of deductive logic must be internalized through examples. Treat the book's examples as practice material and, after reading, devise everyday arguments of your own to test. Reading straight through without practice makes it easy to remember terminology but hard to actually analyze arguments.

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About the author

Stock, St. George William Joseph, 1850- Author · British · 1850

St. George William Joseph Stock (1850– ) was a British philosopher. Public information about his life is limited: it is known only that he was born in 1850, and his other experiences are difficult to trace. Two of his works are held in the collection, A Guide to Stoicism and Deductive Logic, the former introducing Stoicism to general readers and the latter discussing deductive logic. Judging from these two works, his writing spans classical philosophy and logic, with an emphasis on accessible introductions. His style strives for clarity and ease of understanding, aiming to set out the essentials of a school of thought and the rules of reasoning for ordinary readers rather than to offer abstruse specialist scholarship. His introduction to Stoicism is still regarded as one of the basic works for understanding that school.