Calvin College Press
The Little Logic Book
(2013)
by Lee Hardy, Del Ratzsch, Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, and Gregory Mellema
Written by four members of the Calvin College philosophy department,
The Little Logic Book
is a valuable resource for teachers and undergraduate students of philosophy. In addition to providing clear introductions to the modes of reasoning students encounter in their philosophy course readings, it includes a nuanced description of common informal fallacies, a narrative overview of various philosophical accounts of scientific inference, and a concluding chapter on the ethics of argumentation.
The book features engaging dialogues on social, philosophical and religious issues based on the styles of argument taken up in the chapters. In additions to core concepts, distinctions, explanations, rules of inference, methods of assessment, and examples,
The Little Logic Book
provides philosophical commentary that will stimulate discussion of the assumptions and implications of various kinds of human reasoning.
Free downloadable exercises are available here.
Paperback: 978-1937555-10-8, $15.99
Where to Purchase
Buy now from Amazon.com
Calvin College Campus Store: 616-526-6376 or 800-748-0122
Request an Examination Copy
Reviews
"[There is] an impossible tension between high and low, from which we seem to suffer in academic textbook writing. . . . Textbooks--especially logic textbooks--are expected to "talk down" to students, in the sense of being undemanding, assuming no previous knowledge, explaining all terminology, and, in general, being suitably long-winded and patient. The Little Logic Book is refreshingly different. It succeeds in its demonstration of logical topics, from the most basic (like truth tables) to some of the most advanced (like modal logic and counterfactuals), and provides concise articulations of advanced questions and their no-less advanced answers. . . . This is an admirably pertinent book to supplement introductory philosophy classes by introducing students to the fundamentals of reasoning of all kinds--deductive, inductive, scientific, fallacious, and so on. When used with the exercises that accompany it on the press website, it will clarify these staples of philosophical argumentation in just the right dose at just the right intellectual level."
--Anat Biletzki, Albert Schweitzer Professor of Philosophy, Quinnipiac University in
Teaching Philosophy
About the Authors
Lee Hardy
is professor of philosophy at Calvin College. He is the author of
The Fabric of This World
(Eerdmans) and
Nature's Suit: Husserl's Phenomenological Philosophy of the Physical Sciences
(Ohio University Press).
Del Ratzsch
is professor of philosophy emeritus at Calvin College. He is the author of
Nature, Design and Science
(SUNY Press),
The Battle of Beginnings
(IVP Academic), and
Science and Its Limits
(IVP Academic).
Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung
is professor of philosophy at Calvin College. She is the author of
Glittering Vices
(Brazos Press) and a coauthor of
Aquinas's Ethics
(University of Notre Dame).
Gregory Mellema
is professor of philosophy at Calvin College. He is the author of
Beyond the Call of Duty
(SUNY Press),
The Expectations of Morality
(Rodopi), and
Individuals, Groups and Shared Moral Responsibility
(Peter Lang Publishing).
Resources
Exercise Bank for Chapter 1: Deductive Arguments
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 2: Truth Tables
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 3: Quantification
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 4: Modal Logic
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 5: Counterfactuals
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 6: Inductive Logic
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 7: Mill's Methods
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 8: Probability
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 9: Analogical Arguments
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 10: Informal Fallacies
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 11: Explanation
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 12: Scientific Inference
MS Word
|
PDF
Exercise Bank for Chapter 13: The Ethics of Argument
MS Word
|
PDF
