
Symbolic Logic (1897) - kritixilithos
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28696/28696-h/28696-h.htm
======
bdefore
What a glorious conclusion to the introduction:

"Mental recreation is a thing that we all of us need for our mental health;
and you may get much healthy enjoyment, no doubt, from Games, such as Back-
gammon, Chess, and the new Game “Halma”. But, after all, when you have made
yourself a first-rate player at any one of these Games, you have nothing real
to show for it, as a result! You enjoyed the Game, and the victory, no doubt,
at the time: but you have no result that you can treasure up and get real good
out of. And, all the while, you have been leaving unexplored a perfect mine of
wealth. Once master the machinery of Symbolic Logic, and you have a mental
occupation always at hand, of absorbing interest, and one that will be of real
use to you in any subject you may take up. It will give you clearness of
thought——the ability to see your way through a puzzle——the habit of arranging
your ideas in an orderly and get-at-able form——and, more valuable than all,
the power to detect fallacies, and to tear to pieces the flimsy illogical
arguments, which you will so continually encounter in books, in newspapers, in
speeches, and even in sermons, and which so easily delude those who have never
taken the trouble to master this fascinating Art. Try it. That is all I ask of
you!"

~~~
lioeters
Ah, Lewis Carroll. I see some of his works as a step in a long line of
thought, from Renaissance philosophy, art and science. In particular, his
approach to logic feels like a precursor and influence on books like Gödel,
Escher, Bach.

The joy the author takes on conceptualization and mental operations, logic and
computation; the willful use of the Imagination to explore and deepen
understanding - there's irreverence, "just for fun", like a child working with
the most fascinating toy of all - the mind - and at the same time, a respect
and reverence to the profound insights, fruits of the work of play.

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dmix
I'm currently reading up on formal logic in order to fully understand
_Probability Theory_ by E. T. Jaynes [1] and I've found it difficult to find a
good logic book. There's a thousand on Amazon and it's hard to tell which ones
are written a century ago w/ re-released dates with old notation or missing
some new ideas. An "original publishing" data feature on Amazon would be a
godsend.

I've seen a few well reviewed Symbolic logic books but not sure if that fits
the criteria. Mostly digging into boolean algebra atm.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Probability-Theory-Science-T-
Jaynes/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Probability-Theory-Science-T-
Jaynes/dp/0521592712/)

~~~
bubblyworld
As a mathematician, I find this surprising - formal logic and probability
theory don't usually have much to do with each other. Is the issue that you
have trouble with formal mathematical notation?

~~~
dmix
If you look at the probability book I mentioned it uses an algebraic boolean
logic notation and basic set theory to build a formal theory of inference. The
first chapter is an condensed introduction to the formal logic and notation
used - which is what I was struggling with following some of the more complex
equations.

Having read half a book on logic and subsequently learned basic set theory has
already helped read the first portion of the probability book. But then I also
got really into formal logic, I found it really fascinating as a programmer
and I think every person should learn it (with plenty of applications to
regular life), so I decided to take a deep dive into it. The venn diagrams
visualizations are what helped me the most.

I think one of things that held me back initially was my background as a
programmer, it made reading the logic set notation challenging, ie the plus
signs meaning disjunctions and primes negation conjunctions.

~~~
bubblyworld
Ah, I see. That's interesting, I'll see if I can find a bootleg copy and have
a read =). Logic is a beautiful, deep subject - all the best with your
studies!

~~~
dmix
Here's the first 3x chapters, which I presume was for some course:

[https://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/prob/book.pdf](https://bayes.wustl.edu/etj/prob/book.pdf)

I've heard amazing things about it and it hasn't yet disappointed (the little
I've read). Worth the $60 I spent on Abebooks for it (used) but the full copy
is also on ThePirateBay if you want to see a longer preview.

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Gormisdomai
Here's an interactive website for trying the system out
[https://lewiscarrollresources.net/gameoflogic/demonstrator.h...](https://lewiscarrollresources.net/gameoflogic/demonstrator.html)

Does anyone know if this graphical reasoning system something Lewis Carroll
invented himself?

It looks like he also wrote a sequel book, about how to turn the system into a
game:
[https://archive.org/details/gameoflogic00carruoft/page/28/mo...](https://archive.org/details/gameoflogic00carruoft/page/28/mode/2up)

Unfortunately it hasn't been digitised as well as OP

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mitchtbaum
[http://finitegeometry.org/sc/16/logic.html](http://finitegeometry.org/sc/16/logic.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton)

[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Charles_Howard_Hinton](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Charles_Howard_Hinton)

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analog31
I read this when I was a kid. In addition to presenting logic, it's also a
delightful read, because Carroll's examples are hilariously sarcastic.

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danielam
Joyce's "Principles of Logic"[0] is also worth a read in this vein. Also, Fred
Sommers and George Englebretsen have done some interesting work with an
updated version of term logic called term functor logic.

[0]
[https://archive.org/details/principleslogic00joycuoft](https://archive.org/details/principleslogic00joycuoft)

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sweeneyrod
A fun book, I especially like the bits about "Mr Venn's Method of Diagrams".
Some of the examples are a bit questionable to a modern eye though, like the
one with "No Jew is ever a bad hand at a bargain" as a premise.

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earthboundkid
Gutenberg.org is just so unreadable. It’s a damn shame that the classics of
the ages are hidden on a website no one would choose to read on. Why is there
no Penguin Books for the web?

~~~
JonathonW
I think what you're looking for is Standard Ebooks:
[https://standardebooks.org/](https://standardebooks.org/)

They don't have _Symbolic Logic_ , though.

~~~
robin_reala
I produce SE books, I’ll add it to my list.

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kev009
My brain temporarily read "Symbios Logic (1997)" and I got excited for a good
story

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kristopolous
Yes, this is That Lewis Carroll

