Intermediate Logic – Student Handbook

Studying formal logic can be intimidating without the right help, but knowing how to think logically isn't just for "experts." Logic should be your secret weapon. It's the tool for learning how to use other tools. It's the bones that give a clenched fist its structure (and knuckles). With that in mind, this author has painstakingly designed Intermediate Logic for everyday students, teachers, and parents who've never used truth tables or formal proofs of validity to work with syllogisms, but who know just how important and applicable learning logic is. In Intermediate Logic, you'll get the benefit of James B. Nance's twenty years of teaching experience to help you master propositional arguments:

• How to interpret and analyze logical operators and truth tables by reviewing and applying the concepts of validity, contradiction, consistency, and equivalence,
• How to internalize the nine basic rules of inference to derive an argument's conclusions from its premises,
• How to easily determine consistency, self-contradiction, tautology, equivalence, and validity by using truth trees, How to apply all these skills to real-life thinkers and writers wherever you encounter them,
• An all-new optional unit on understanding digital logic, the "language" which modern gadgets (from digital alarm clock displays to computer processors) use to function.

Anybody can learn Intermediate Logic. Brand new, clean, easy-to-read layout, lots of margin notes for key points and further study, a step-by-step modern method, and exercises for every lesson (plus review questions and review exercises for every unit) all make Intermediate Logic the perfect choice for establishing a concrete and applicable knowledge of propositional arguments.