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PaperclipPerfector  26d ago (text post)   2687 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 12, 2025

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Does the Motte have any recommendations if I want to educate myself on formal logic?

I'm considering getting this textbook, but just because some random youtube video recommended it, I don't really know what else there is on the market.

I really like Boolos and Jeffrey's "Computability and Logic", although that would probably count as a second course. What level of background knowledge do you already have?

I have very little background in it currently. I've dabbled a little bit in some analytic philosophy which uses it and after I got a degree in a humanities field I learned to code and got a job which exposes me to a little bit of CS every now and then. Basically, both in philosophy and CS I've come across use of formal logic a bit, but I've never actually had to do anything with it myself. It did however produce a lingering interest in the topic which is why I'm now intending to get a proper understanding of it. So I reckon I'm probably better off starting with an introductory book, but I'll take note of your recommendation in case I am motivated to delve deeper after working through an introductory book. Thanks for the recommendation!

The preface says: "Computability and Logic is intended for the student in philosophy or pure or applied mathematics who has mastered the material ordinarily covered in a first course in logic and who wishes to advance his or her acquaintance with the subject. The aim of the book is to present the principal fundamental theoretical results about logic, and to cover certain other meta-logical results whose proofs are not easily obtainable elsewhere."

I find the style to be more chatty and less dry than most mathematical texts, presumably to cater for the philosophy students. The main prerequisite is an understanding of first-order logic. The Wikipedia page for "First-order logic" looks pretty good.

Thanks, it certainly seems like the book deals with precisely the sorts of things I'm interested in.

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