Logical Forms: An Introduction to Philosophical Logic - Hardcover

"This book provides a valuable philosophical accompaniment to the study of elementary formal logic, demonstrating the role of logical analysis in philosophy. The second edition takes account of new work from the last decade, and presents the old material with even greater clarity." Dorothy Edgington, University of Oxford "Logical Forms is written in a way that makes the dry, abstract problems of philosophical logic accessible. It is one of the best books of its kind and is thoroughly recommended." Francis Moorcroft, University of Hull, THES, 1/6/01

When is a reason for doing or believing something a good reason? Over the past century, logic's contribution to answering this question has typically involved finding "logical forms": that is, using a special notation to bring out logical features more clearly. The correct identification of logical forms has been held to be important not only to logic but also to philosophy. Bertrand Russell coined the phrase "philosophical logic" to describe an approach to philosophical problems: find the correct logical form of the problematic sentences, and the problems vanish."Logical Forms" explains both the theoretical underpinnings of the approach and the detailed problems involved in finding logical forms in the languages of propositional logic, classical first order logic, modal logic, and some alternatives such as free logic, binary and substitutional quantifiers. This revised edition incorporates results of recent work. Chapter 3 on conditionals, and the sections dealing with predicate quantifiers, free logics and subjunctive conditionals have been completely rewritten. The exercises are integrated throughout the book, and each chapter concludes with updated notes to guide further reading. The result is a genuinely interactive introduction which engages the reader in developing the argument. This book does not presuppose knowledge of deductive methods in formal logic and it will be of immense benefit to those approaching philosophical logic for the first time.