This introductory level text carries the conviction that logic is the most important course that college students take. "The Power of Logic" provides balanced coverage of informal logic, traditional categorical logic, and modern symbolic logic, while its companion on-line supplement, "Logic Tutor", offers a wealth of applications for the concepts discussed. Laymans direct and accessible writing style, along with his plentiful examples and imaginative exercises, make this the best text for todays logic classes.
1. Basic Concepts Validity and Soundness / Forms and Counterexamples / Some "Famous" Forms / Strength and Cogency 2. Identifying Arguments Arguments and Nonarguments / Well-Crafted Arguments / Notes / Appendix to Chapter 2: Argument Diagrams 3. Logic and Language Logic, Meaning, and Emotive Force / Definitions / Using Definitions to Evaluate Arguments 4. Informal Fallacies Fallacies Involving Irrelevant Premises / Fallacies Involving Ambiguity / Fallacies Involving Unwarranted Assumptions 5. Categorical Logic: Statements Standard Forms of Categorical Statements / The Traditional Square of Opposition / Further Immediate Inferences 6. Categorical Logic: Syllogisms Standard Mood, Form, and Figure / Venn Diagrams and Categorical Statements / Venn Diagrams and Categorical Syllogisms / The Modern Square of Opposition / Enthymemes / Sorites and Removing Term Complements / Rules for Evaluating Syllogisms 7. Statement Logic: Truth Tables Symbolizing English Arguments / Truth Tables / Using Truth Tables to Evaluate Arguments / Abbreviated Truth Tables / Tautology, Contradiction, Contingency, and Logical Equivalence 8. Statement Logic: Proofs Implicational Rules of Inference / Five Equivalence Rules / Five More Equivalence Rules / Conditional Proof / Reductio ad Absurdum / Proving Theorems 9. Predicate Logic Predicates and Quantifiers / Demonstrating Invalidity / Constructing Proofs / Quantifier Negation, RAA, and CP / The Logic of Relations: Symbolizations / The Logic of Relations: Proofs / Identity: Symbolizations / Identity: Proofs 10. Induction Inductive and Deductive Logic: Contrasts and Clarifications (Statistical Syllogisms) / Arguments from Authority and Induction by Enumeration / Mills Methods and Scientific Reasoning / Arguments from Analogy 11. Probability Three Theories of Probability / The Rules of Probability / Bayes Theorem