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The 10 Best Logic Books list have been recommended not only by normal readers but also by experts.
You’ll also find that these are top-ranking books on the US Amazon Best Sellers book list for the Logic category of books.
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Let’s take a look at the list of 10 Best Logic Books.
10 Best Logic Books
Now, let’s dive right into the list of 10 Best Logic Books, where we’ll provide a quick outline for each book.
1. The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning by Nathaniel Bluedorn Review Summary
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The Fallacy Detective: Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning
The Fallacy Detective has been the best selling text for teaching logical fallacies and introduction to logic for over 15 years. “Can learning logic be fun? With The Fallacy Detective it appears that it can be. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to improve his reasoning skills.” –Tim Challies, curriculum reviewer “Cartoon and comic illustrations, humorous examples, and a very reader- friendly writing style make this the sort of course students will enjoy.” –Cathy Duffy, homeschool curriculum reviewer “I really like The Fallacy Detective because it has funny cartoons, silly stories, and teaches you a lot!” –11 Year Old What is a fallacy? A fallacy is an error in logic a place where someone has made a mistake in his thinking. This is a handy book for learning to spot common errors in reasoning. – For ages twelve through adult. – Fun to use — learn skills you can use right away. – Peanuts, Dilbert, and Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. – Includes The Fallacy Detective Game. – Exercises with answer key.
2. A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston Review Summary
A Rulebook for Arguments
From academic writing to personal and public discourse, the need for good arguments and better ways of arguing is greater than ever before. This timely fifth edition of A Rulebook for Arguments sharpens an already- classic text, adding updated examples and a new chapter on public debates that provides rules for the etiquette and ethics of sound public dialogue as well as clear and sound thinking in general.
3. Logic: A Complete Introduction (Complete Introductions) by Siu-Fan Lee Review Summary
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Logic: A Complete Introduction (Complete Introductions)
Understand Logic is a comprehensive introduction to this fascinating though sometimes challenging subject. As well as looking at logic in theoretical terms the book considers its everyday uses and demonstrates how it has genuine practical applications. It will take you step by step through the most difficult concepts and is packed with exercises to help you consolidate your learning at every stage. Covering everything from syllogistic logic to logical paradoxes and even looking at logic in Alice in Wonderland, this is the only guide you will ever need.
4. The Thinking Toolbox: Thirty-Five Lessons That Will Build Your Reasoning Skills by Nathaniel Bluedorn Review Summary
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The Thinking Toolbox: Thirty-Five Lessons That Will Build Your Reasoning Skills
The Thinking Toolbox has been the best selling text for teaching critical thinking skills and introduction to logic for over 15 years. “The Bluedorns have certainly achieved their goal of creating a logic textbook that is neither boring nor distant, but rather informative, approachable, enjoyable, and valuable.” – Jordan J. Ballor at the Acton Institute –Acton Institute web site “I think the best part of The Thinking Toolbox would be the examples because they are hilarious. . . . I would highly recommend this book. It’s useful and great comedy at the same time.” Sarah (age 11) –student This book is like a toolbox, full of different kinds of tools you can use for different thinking tasks. Just as you use the wrench in a regular tool box to fix the sink, so you can use the tools we give you in this book to solve thinking problems. – When it is dumb to argue – Using the scientific method – Five rules of brainstorming – Who has a reason to lie? – How to analyze opposing viewpoints – How to analyze evidence and sources – How to list reasons why you believe something – And much more We wrote this book for children and adults who want to learn logic and critical thinking skills. The Thinking Toolbox follows the same style as The Fallacy Detective with lessons and exercises and an answer key in the back. Parents and teachers, as well as anybody who wants to learn logic, will find The Thinking Toolbox easy to use and practical. Features: – Fun to use not dry like a math textbook – Can be used after The Fallacy Detective – Introductory teaches skills you can use right away – Self-teaching format – For ages thirteen and older – Over 60 cartoon illustrations by Richard LaPierre
5. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools (Thinker's Guide Library) by Richard Paul Review Summary
The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools (Thinker's Guide Library)
This powerful book introduces core critical thinking concepts and principles as an empowering problem-solving framework for every profession, course of study, and indeed every area of life. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools distills the groundbreaking work of Richard Paul and Linda Elder, targeting how to deconstruct thinking through the elements of reasoning and how to assess the quality of our thinking. The eighth edition of this guide further details the foundations of critical thinking and how they can be applied in instruction to improve teaching and learning at all levels; it also reveals how we can learn to identify and avoid egocentric and sociocentric thought, which lead to close-mindedness, self- deception, arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, selfishness, herd mentality, prejudice, and the like. With more than half a million copies sold, Richard Paul and Linda Elder’s bestselling book in the Thinker’s Guide Library is used in secondary and higher education courses and professional development seminars across the globe. In a world of conflicting information and clashing ideologies, this guide clears a path for advancing fairminded critical societies.
6. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein Review Summary
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
“Philosophy is not a theory,” asserted Austro-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), “but an activity.” In this 1921 opus, his only philosophical work published during his lifetime, Wittgenstein defined the object of philosophy as the logical clarification of thoughts and proposed the solution to most philosophic problems by means of a critical method of linguistic analysis. In proclaiming philosophy as a matter of logic rather than of metaphysics, Wittgenstein created a sensation among intellectual circles that influenced the development of logical positivism and changed the direction of 20th-century thought. Beginning with the principles of symbolism and the necessary relations between words and objects, the author applies his theories to various branches of traditional philosophy, illustrating how mistakes arise from inappropriate use of symbolism and misuses of language. After examining the logical structure of propositions and the nature of logical inference, he discusses the theory of knowledge as well as principles of physics and ethics and aspects of the mystical. Supervised by the author himself, this translation from the German by C. K. Ogden is regarded as the definitive text. A magisterial introduction by the distinguished philosopher Bertrand Russell hails Wittgenstein’s achievement as extraordinarily important, “one which no serious philosopher can afford to neglect.” Introduction by Bertrand Russell.
7. Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas R Hofstadter Review Summary
Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking
Analogy is the core of all thinking. This is the simple but unorthodox premise that Pulitzer Prize — winning author Douglas Hofstadter and French psychologist Emmanuel Sander defend in their new work. Hofstadter has been grappling with the mysteries of human thought for over thirty years. Now, with his trademark wit and special talent for making complex ideas vivid, he has partnered with Sander to put forth a highly novel perspective on cognition. We are constantly faced with a swirling and intermingling multitude of ill- defined situations. Our brain’s job is to try to make sense of this unpredictable, swarming chaos of stimuli. How does it do so? The ceaseless hail of input triggers analogies galore, helping us to pinpoint the essence of what is going on. Often this means the spontaneous evocation of words, sometimes idioms, sometimes the triggering of nameless, long-buried memories. Why did two-year-old Camille proudly exclaim, “I undressed the banana!”? Why do people who hear a story often blurt out, “Exactly the same thing happened to me!” when it was a completely different event? How do we recognize an aggressive driver from a split-second glance in our rearview mirror? What in a friend’s remark triggers the offhand reply, “That’s just sour grapes”? What did Albert Einstein see that made him suspect that light consists of particles when a century of research had driven the final nail in the coffin of that long-dead idea? The answer to all these questions, of course, is analogy-making — the meat and potatoes, the heart and soul, the fuel and fire, the gist and the crux, the lifeblood and the wellsprings of thought. Analogy-making, far from happening at rare intervals, occurs at all moments, defining thinking from top to toe, from the tiniest and most fleeting thoughts to the most creative scientific insights. Like G ö, Escher, Bach before it, Surfaces and Essences will profoundly enrich our understanding of our own minds. By plunging the reader into an extraordinary variety of colorful situations involving language, thought, and memory, by revealing bit by bit the constantly churning cognitive mechanisms normally completely hidden from view, and by discovering in them one central, invariant core — the incessant, unconscious quest for strong analogical links to past experiences — this book puts forth a radical and deeply surprising new vision of the act of thinking.
8. Socratic Logic: A Logic Text using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles, Edition 3.1 by Peter Kreeft Review Summary
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Socratic Logic: A Logic Text using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles, Edition 3.1
This new and revised edition of Peter Kreeft’s Socratic Logic is updated, adding new exercises and more complete examples, all with Kreeft’s characteristic clarity and wit. Since its introduction in the spring of 2004, Socratic Logic has proven to be a different type of logic text: (1) This is the only complete system of classical Aristotelian logic in print. The “old logic” is still the natural logic of the four language arts (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). Symbolic, or “mathematical,” logic is not for the humanities. (How often have you heard someone argue in symbolic logic?) (2) This book is simple and user-friendly. It is highly interactive, with a plethora of exercises and a light, engaging style. (3) It is practical. It is designed for do-it-yourselfers as well as classrooms. It emphasizes topics in proportion to probable student use: e.g., interpreting ordinary language, not only analyzing but also constructing effective arguments, smoking out hidden assumptions, making “argument maps,” and using Socratic method in various circumstances. (4) It is philosophical. Its exercises expose students to many classical quotations, and additional chapters introduce philosophical issues in a Socratic manner and from a commonsense, realistic point of view. It prepares students for reading Great Books rather than Dick and Jane, and models Socrates as the beginner’s ideal teacher and philosopher.
9. The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge Classics) by Karl Popper Review Summary
The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge Classics)
Described by the philosopher A.J. Ayer as a work of ‘great originality and power’, this book revolutionized contemporary thinking on science and knowledge. Ideas such as the now legendary doctrine of ‘falsificationism’ electrified the scientific community, influencing even working scientists, as well as post-war philosophy. This astonishing work ranks alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper’s most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand to be read to this day.
10. Logic For Dummies by Mark Zegarelli Review Summary
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Logic For Dummies
Logic concepts are more mainstream than you may realize. There’s logic every place you look and in almost everything you do, from deciding which shirt to buy to asking your boss for a raise, and even to watching television, where themes of such shows as CSI and Numbers incorporate a variety of logistical studies. Logic For Dummies explains a vast array of logical concepts and processes in easy-to-understand language that make everything clear to you, whether you’re a college student of a student of life. You’ll find out about: * Formal Logic * Syllogisms * Constructing proofs and refutations * Propositional and predicate logic * Modal and fuzzy logic * Symbolic logic * Deductive and inductive reasoning L ogic For Dummies tracks an introductory logic course at the college level. Concrete, real-world examples help you understand each concept you encounter, while fully worked out proofs and fun logic problems encourage you students to apply what you’ve learned.
