Bookshelf
Alumni and faculty members who would like to have their books considered for this listing should contact Stacey Himmelberger, editor of Hamilton magazine. This list, which dates back to 2018, is updated periodically with books appearing alphabetically on the date of entry.
Introduction to Formal Logic with Philosophical Applications by Russell Marcus, associate professor of philosophy
August 15, 2018
Tags Faculty Book
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).
This book not only provides an introduction to formal deductive logic; it also presents essays on logic and its application in philosophy and beyond. The goal is to integrate writing into what is traditionally a course on strictly formal (i.e., mathematical) methods in philosophy: formal symbolic logic.
Marcus said he was frustrated with the results of his logic teaching, noting that his students knew how to do their truth tables, translations, and proofs, but generally had little idea of why they were doing them. “I started putting aside some time in the course to talk about the philosophical motivations for doing logic, why we were teaching this ‘math-y’ course in philosophy and how professional philosophers use or presuppose formal logic in their work,” he said.
The result was what came to be known as “Philosophy Fridays” — biweekly sessions in which students were asked to choose a topic for further research and writing. “Every student in my logic course writes a philosophy paper on the connection between logic and other areas of philosophy,” Marcus said.
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Stacey Himmelberger
Editor of Hamilton magazine
