Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"The best introduction to logic you will find."--Martin Gardner

"Professor Bennett entertains as she instructs," writes Publishers Weekly about the penetrating yet practical Logic Made Easy . This brilliantly clear and gratifyingly concise treatment of the ancient Greek discipline identifies the illogical in everything from street signs to tax forms. Complete with puzzles you can try yourself, Logic Made Easy invites readers to identify and ultimately remedy logical slips in everyday life. Designed with dozens of visual examples, the book guides you through those hair-raising times when logic is at odds with our language and common sense. Logic Made Easy is indeed one of those rare books that will actually make you a more logical human being.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Logic Is Rare (p. 11)
• The mistakes we make (p. 13)
• Logic should be everywhere (p. 18)
• How history can help (p. 19)
• 1 Proof (p. 29)
• Consistency is all I ask (p. 29)
• Proof by contradiction (p. 33)
• Disproof (p. 36)
• 2 All (p. 40)
• All S are P (p. 42)
• Vice Versa (p. 42)
• Familiarity-help or hindrance? (p. 48)
• Clarity or brevity? (p. 50)
• 3 A Not Tangles Everything Up (p. 53)
• The trouble with not (p. 54)
• Scope of the negative (p. 58)
• A and E propositions (p. 59)
• When no means yes-the "negative pregnant" and double negative (p. 61)
• 4 Some Is Part or All of All (p. 64)
• Some is existential (p. 65)
• Some are; some are not (p. 68)
• A, E, I, and O (p. 70)
• 5 Syllogisms (p. 73)
• Sorites, or heap (p. 85)
• Atmosphere of the "sillygism" (p. 88)
• Knowledge interferes with logic (p. 89)
• Truth interferes with logic (p. 90)
• Terminology made simple (p. 91)
• 6 When Things Are IFfy (p. 96)
• The converse of the conditional (p. 108)
• Causation (p. 112)
• The contrapositive conditional (p. 115)
• 7 Syllogisms Involving IF, AND, and OR (p. 118)
• Disjunction, an "or" statement (p. 119)
• Conjunction, an "and" statement (p. 121)
• Hypothetical syllogisms (p. 124)
• Common fallacies (p. 130)
• Diagramming conditional syllogisms (p. 134)
• 8 Series Syllogisms (p. 137)
• 9 Symbols That Express Our Thoughts (p. 145)
• Leibniz's dream comes true: Boolean logic (p. 151)
• 10 Logic Machines and Truth Tables (p. 160)
• Reasoning machines (p. 160)
• Truth tables (p. 165)
• True, false, and maybe (p. 168)
• 11 Fuzzy Logic, Fallacies, and Paradoxes (p. 173)
• Shaggy logic (p. 173)
• Fallacies (p. 177)
• Paradoxes (p. 187)
• 12 Common Logic and Language (p. 192)
• 13 Thinking Well-Together (p. 202)
• Theories of reasoning (p. 210)
• Notes (p. 219)
• References (p. 233)
• Acknowledgments (p. 243)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In this case, you can judge a book by its cover-or at least its title: the author makes a promise right at the start and then follows through by making logic easy for readers to understand. In her previous book, Randomness, Bennett proved that she had a grasp of mathematics, statistics, and the logic that surrounds them. This topic can seem daunting to those without a mathematical or scientific mind, but the author's writing style and generous use of figures and logic puzzles render it quite accessible. The book is complete with references and detailed notes for those who crave a deeper or more academic look at the subject, yet Bennett has not written an academic tome. Instead, she offers an enjoyable book for the rest of us. Reading it won't turn you into Spock, but you will surely gain an appreciation for his approach.-Manya Chylinski, Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In this compact, fluently written survey leavened with humor, New Jersey mathematics professor Bennett (Randomness) entertains as she instructs, focusing on "the barriers we face in trying to communicate logically with each other." The author covers the ancient Greeks (the Greek word logos means "knowledge"), then such giants as Leibniz and Newton, who helped rescue the study of logic from classical languages, finally modern mathematicians and philosophers like Whitehead and Russell. In discussing topics like syllogisms, she uses tables and diagrams that shouldn't daunt anyone with a firm foundation in high school algebra and geometry. The book's most interesting chapter explains why if is perhaps the most problematical word in any verbal proposition. Everyone, including the hopelessly innumerate, will find Bennett's lessons in the tricks of speech invaluable, particularly in this election year. Agent, Ed Knappman at New England Publishing Associates. (Apr. 12) Forecast: A blurb from Martin Gardner will alert his fans that Logic Made Easy is of the same quality as his popular books on logic, math and philosophy. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Independent scholar Bennett offers a lively and fascinating mix of cognitive psychology, linguistic analysis, and the history and practice of basic logic. Anyone interested in reasoning will enjoy this book, and most not schooled in formal logic will learn from it. Bennett chose her topics well, with a focus on, for example, common conflations of necessary and sufficient conditions, general scope confusions (calling on Aristotle), and mistakes about the placement and scope of negations. The book is not meant to be a main logic text--there are no exercises. It would, however, make an excellent supplement in undergraduate formal or informal logic courses. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates; general readers. K. Doran Hamilton College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Deborah J. Bennett is the author of Randomness and teaches mathematics at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, New Jersey