Colin Allen

Michael Hand

Logic Primer presents a rigorous introduction to natural deduction systems of sentential and first-order logic. Logic Primer presents a rigorous introduction to natural deduction systems of sentential and first-order logic. The text is designed to foster the student-instructor relationship. The key concepts are laid out in concise definitions and comments, with the expectation that the instructor will elaborate upon them. New to the second edition is the addition of material on the logic of identity in chapters 3 and 4. An innovative interactive Web site, consisting of a "Logic Daemon" and a "Quizmaster," encourages students to formulate their own proofs and links them to appropriate explanations in the book.

Logic Primer, second edition

Marc Bekoff

George V. Lauder

Within the natural sciences, only biologists take seriously teleological statements about design, purpose and adaptive function. Some biologists claim that to understand the complex morphological and behavioural traits of organisms we must say what they are for, which is to give a teleological explanation of why organisms have them. Others argue that the theory of natural selection, in providing statistical explanations for the same phenomena, obviates any need for teleological thinking. If teleology cannot be eliminated from biology, it raises fundamental questions about the nature of biological explanation and about the relationship of biology to the rest of science.

Analyses of Function and Design in Biology

Nature's Purposes

The new edition of a comprehensive and rigorous but concise introduction to symbolic logic. Logic Primer offers a comprehensive and rigorous introduction to symbolic logic, providing concise definitions of key concepts, illustrative examples, and exercises. After presenting the definitions of validity and soundness, the book goes on to introduce a formal language, proof theory, and formal semantics for sentential logic (chapters 1–3) and for first-order predicate logic (chapters 4–6) with identity (chapter 7). For this third edition, the material has been reorganized from four chapters into seven, increasing the modularity of the text and enabling teachers to choose alternative paths through the book. New exercises have been added, and all exercises are now arranged to support students moving from easier to harder problems. Its spare and elegant treatment makes Logic Primer unique among textbooks. It presents the material with minimal chattiness, allowing students to proceed more directly from topic to topic and leaving instructors free to cover the subject matter in the way that best suits their students. The book includes more than thirty exercise sets, with answers to many of them provided in an appendix. The book’s website allows students to enter and check proofs, truth tables, and other exercises interactively.

Logic Primer, third edition

Colin Allen (a philosopher) and Marc Bekoff (a cognitive ethologist) approach their work from a perspective that considers arguments about evolutionary continuity to be as applicable to the study of animal minds and brains as they are to comparative studies of kidneys, stomachs, and hearts. Cognitive ethologists study the comparative, evolutionary, and ecological aspects of the mental phenomena of animals. Philosophy can provide cognitive ethology with an analytical basis for attributing cognition to nonhuman animals and for studying it, and cognitive ethology can help philosophy to explain mentality in naturalistic terms by providing data on the evolution of cognition. The heart of Allen and Bekoff's book is this reciprocal relationship between philosophical theories of mind and empirical studies of animal cognition. The interdisciplinary approach reveals flaws in common objections to the view that animals have minds.

The Philosophy and Biology of Cognitive Ethology

Species of Mind

Wendell Wallach

"Moral Machines is a fine introduction to the emerging field of robot ethics. There is much here that will interest ethicists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, and roboticists." ---Peter Danielson, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews --

Colin Allen

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