by Spencer Hall
In the study of logic, there are two basic divisions: material and formal. Material logic is concerned with the content of arguments, and relates more directly to real world situations, as it involves the study of common fallacies. Formal logic, though not as immediately connected to everday things like propaganda, is lesser known but equally important, dealing with the structure and form of arguments. Martin Cothran’s Traditional Logic 1 and Traditional Logic 2 cover formal logic. In Traditional Logic 1, Cothran introduces the reader to a number of basic concepts in formal logic, assuming no previous knowledge of either formal or material logic. The book has a simple structure, and is divided into three parts based on the three parts of an argument: simple apprehension, judgment, and deductive inference.
The first part of the book is the shortest, containing only three chapters for simple apprehension and its verbal expression, term. Simple apprehension is merely the act of the mind in grasping a concept, while a term is the verbal expression of that concept. The chapters about simple apprehension are necessarily more abstract than the other chapters, and may cause difficulty for some students. The second section, which deals with judgment (affirming or denying something about a concept) and its verbal expression, proposition, is far more concrete and works with logical statements such as, “All men are mortal,” or “No football players are big.” It is also the longest part of the book , spanning from Chapter 4 to Chapter 9. Chapters 10 through 13 cover the last part of logical thought: deductive inference, and its verbal expression, the syllogism. The material in this section was more challenging for me, and definitely involves the most amount of thought and work of the three sections. However, it is also the part of the text that begins to connect what has been learned before with making formal arguments. Traditional Logic 1 concludes with a review chapter.
In general overview, Cothran’s work is a good primer in formal logic. It is somewhat dry at points, and I do feel that earlier on, many of the exercises are repititious and just filling up space. But on the positive side, his delivery of the concepts is relatively easy to understand, the difficulty level steadily climbs along with the student’s increasing knowledge without being overly challenging, and earlier concepts are retained by the exercises while new ones are built on. In all, I would recommend Cothran’s textbook to someone who wants a primer in formal logic and is willing to take some time and effort to work through it.
Copyright January 03, 2009, all rights reserved. 7789 views
