This text is a primer in the best sense of the word: A book which presents the basic elements of a subject. In other respects, I have sought to write a different kind of text, breaking with what I regard as an unfortunate tradition in teaching formal logic. From truth tables through completeness, I seek to explain, as opposed to merely presenting my subject - matter. Most logic texts (indeed, most texts) put their readers to sleep with a formal, dry style. I have aimed for a livelier lecture style, which treats students as human beings and not as knowledge receptacles. In a text, as in the classroom, students need to be encouraged and to hear their difficulties acknowledged. They need variation in pace. They need shifts in focus among "I," "we," and "you," just as most of us speak in the classroom. From time to time students simply need to rest their brains.
Now to the contents of the Primer. Volume I presents sentence logic. Volume 11, Part I lays out predicate logic, including identity, functions, and definite descriptions; Part I1 introduces metatheory, including mathematical induction, soundness, and completeness. The text includes completely independent presentations of Fitch-style natural deduction and the tree method as developed by Richard Jeffrey. I have presented the material with a great deal of modularity. I have presented the text in two volumes to maximize flexibility of use in a variety of courses. Many introductory courses cover a mix of informal and formal logic. Too often I have heard instructors express dissatisfaction with what they find available for the formal portion of such a course. Volume I provides a new option. Using it in tandem with any of the many available inexpensive'informal texts, instructors can combine the best of both subjects. Volume I will present a serious-minded introduction to formal logic, which at the same time should prove accessible and encouraging to those students who will never again take another logic course. The relatively small numbers who continue to a second course, devoted exclusively to formal logic, need only purchase Volume I1 to build on the foundation already laid.
