This text-book presupposes no knowledge of logic on the part of the reader. It is written with the elementary, but intelligent, student in mind. I have striven to cover the whole subject simply and clearly, especially to show the unity of the classical Aristotelian tradition with contemporary mathematical logic. The book is eclectic, a statement of ideas which have become—or are fast becoming—the common property of all logicians. It represents no school, and has no philosophical axe to grind.
Part III, which deals with mathematical logic, is independent of Parts I, II, and IV, and may be omitted by those who are not interested in this subject. Some teachers may prefer to start with Part II, which develops from the beginning the theories of the syllogism, immediate inference, hypothetical and disjunctive reasoning, definition, classification, terms, propositions, and so on, as they appear in current text-books, though the exposition departs somewhat from the usual order. Part I is more general. It introduces the central concepts of logic in a way that covers both the classical tradition and the more recent mathematical developments.
But it should be intelligible to the student before he has read the later parts of the book. Part IV treats of induction.
Exercises covering both the syllogistic logic and mathematical logic are given in Appendix B.
-Ralph M. Eaton