Learning Logic

by William Lane Craig

A simple, illustrated textbook for children which teaches them the basic rules of logic.

Genres: Philosophy

126 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2014

About the author

William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He and his wife Jan have two grown children.

At the age of sixteen as a junior in high school, he first heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded his life to Christ. Dr. Craig pursued his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College (B.A. 1971) and graduate studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (M.A. 1974; M.A. 1975), the University of Birmingham (England) (Ph.D. 1977), and the University of Munich (Germany) (D.Theol. 1984). From 1980-86 he taught Philosophy of Religion at Trinity, during which time he and Jan started their family. In 1987 they moved to Brussels, Belgium, where Dr. Craig pursued research at the University of Louvain until assuming his position at Talbot in 1994.

He has authored or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time and Eternity, as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology, including The Journal of Philosophy, New Testament Studies, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy, and British Journal for Philosophy of Science.

Reviews

[Evan Minton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn the rules of logical inference. The book is aimed at children, but honestly, anyone new to studying logic will benefit from this book. I promise you, whether you're 10 or 110, you'll get a lot out of this book. Age doesn't matter, but education level does. If you're skilled in logic, this book won't benefit you. However, if you're a beginner, that's a different story. I recommend this book to anyone new to logic. Learning Logic is important. Why? Because we all use it every day! The difference is that some people use it a little better than others. If you want to learn how to formulate good and sound arguments, and to avoid being duped by bad ones, you need to study logic. This book by Dr. William Lane Craig is a good way to get started.

[Michael Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great short introduction to the basic rules of logic. The examples are helpful, as are the exercises. I would recommend this to any adult beginning to learn logic, even though the book is clearly designed for children and Craig says he wrote the book to teach the basic rules of logic to his own “young children.” See more on this below.

Each chapter explains a particular rule or usage of a rule with explanatory examples. Many chapters also have short exercises. The book also contains an answer key for the exercises. He concludes with a chapter on how these rules apply to arguments for the existence of God.

Since the book does not explicitly state the age range it is designed for, it is hard to determine how appropriate it might be for children of that age. The design and illustrative artwork seem geared toward a younger child, but it doesn’t seem like this would be generally helpful for a child unless the adult – presumably a parent – teaching him or her already knew logic. Here’s why:

1) The explanations are somewhat terse.
2) The examples are not thoroughly explained, at least not at the level of a child.
3) The use of symbolic logic at the end seems very difficult for a young child, especially given the paucity of explanation. He explains it quickly and seems to the think the child should just “get it” and do some exercises.
4) He expects the “child” using the book to have a pretty sophisticated vocabulary. He speaks of negations, quantification, hypothetical syllogisms, absorption, and existential quantification without definition.

In conclusion, this is a great quick introduction to basic logic for an adult, if he or she can overcome the embarrassment of using a book illustrated for a child.

[Stephanie]

Way too confusing for what it is.