Using Logic in Real Life: A Training Manual for your Rational Faculty.
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© 2003–2021 by Teed Rockwell
I wrote this text during my twenty years teaching Critical Thinking in the California State University system. It is the result of years of honing the text in response to my student’s questions, and to my own increasing understanding of the curious relationship between logic and ordinary language.
This text can be used in a course, or read by anyone who wants to think more logically. I can’t promise you that it will show you how to beat up all the Logic bullies who kick sand in your face, or throw dust in your eyes. But it does show you how to use logic to construct good extended arguments, how to analyze them for weak spots, and how to evaluate the arguments of others. You can reach each chapter directly with the links below, or go through the book in sequence by clicking on the links at the end of each chapter.
Arguments and Speech Acts
Categorical Logic
Categories, Necessity, and Sufficiency
Propositional Logic
The Logical Operators
The Logical Inference Forms
The Formal Fallacies
Tips for Translating into “Logical English”
Using Logic to Analyze an Argument
Diagramming Arguments
From Aristotelian Substances to Newtonian Mechanisms: The Rise of Modern Science
Categories and Family resemblance
Aristotle, Wittgenstein, and Artificial Intelligence
Inductive Vs. Deductive Reasoning
Causal Reasoning
Newton, Aristotle, and Plato
Teaching Logic to Mathphobic Students
Invited Paper for the 14th annual California State University Symposium on…