Logic & Language Books - Page 3

The Great Book Of Mind Teasers & Mind Puzzlers

George J. Summers

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Huge collection of tantalizing logic puzzles offers hints when you're stuck, plus step-by-step solutions, imaginatively teaching problem-solving skills. "Will challenge and delight."--Mathematics Teacher. "Fun for puzzle fans of all ages."--Booklist. 256 pages, b/w illus. throughout, 5 3/8 x 7 3/4.

Will Shortz Presents The Little Gift Book of KenKen: 250 Logic Puzzles That Make You Smarter (Will Shortz Presents...)

Tetsuya Miyamoto, Will Shortz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Starting from Sudoku, this is too easy... 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I must admit that when I saw the 250 on the cover, for 250 puzzles, I was hoping for a challenging book for a puzzle fan that would last a long time, rather than a book you can give to your 10-year-old kids or grandmothers who find the easy/medium Sudoku puzzles too difficult.

A glance was enough to see that no puzzle in this book would take more than 5 minutes to solve.

The Times' online Kenken puzzles are quite nice, and I believe that Kenken is a nice new puzzle, which has some advantages as compared to Sudoku. But if you want a new challenge, I would rather go in the direction of Extreme Sudoku, or some other Japanese puzzles.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to try out any of the other Kenken books, and after this disappointment I think I will stick to online puzzles until someone decides to give me a Kenken book for X-mas. I would think that some of those books would offer significantly harder puzzles than this one.

Despite my unfavorable opinion on this book, I don't think the book as such is bad, and it might go very well in some audiences - it just did not live up to my expectations!

Editorial Review:

KenKen can be described simply as sudoku with basic math (addition, subtraction and/or multiplication and division). It’s a fun, addictive, clever puzzle that’s winning fans the world over.

Already more than one million KenKen books have been sold in Japan and is a huge hit in The Times of London.  Now, America can catch KenKen fever!

This gift edition includes 250 KenKen puzzles with “How to Solve” instructions and an introduction by puzzlemaster Will Shortz in a sturdy and stylish hardcover.

Critical Thinking

Alec Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this book, Alec Fisher aims to teach directly an important range of thinking skills. The skills are fundamental critical (and creative) thinking skills, and they are taught in a way which expressly aims to facilitate their transfer to other subjects and other contexts. The method is to use 'thinking maps' which help improve thinking by asking key questions of students when they are faced with different types of problems. Alec Fisher explains the language of reasoning, how to understand different kinds of arguments and how to ask the right question. Other topics include: different patterns of reasoning and standards which apply in different contexts, how to clarify and interpret ideas, how to judge the credibility of claims, and how to decide whether a person really justifies their conclusions, given their audience. Particular attention is given to understanding casual explanations and evaluating decisions. THe book includes many examples and exercises which give extensive practice in developing critico-creative thinking skills.

The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations

Boris Kordemsky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Comprehensive set of math puzzles for various levels 4 out of 5 stars.
33 of 35 people found this review helpful.

Nice collection of problems which demand some creativity as well as varying degrees of mathematical prowess. Also populated with interesting anedotes regarding mathematicians throughout history.

Although no mathematics beyond the high school level is required, the challenge lies in the ingenious application of even the most rudimentary math and logic necessary to successfully tackle these exercises. The problems range from rather simple to difficult. Some amount to raw logic riddles requiring little or no math while others offer the opportunity to fine tune one's skills in geometry and algebra. In addition to offering a rich variety of problems which will satisfy the needs of puzzlists at many levels, the editors have made a good point of dividing the problems into categories emphasizing different sets of skills including geometry, algebra, arithmetic operations, spatial visualization and logic. Such a delineation makes it easy evaluate strengths and weaknesses so you can focus on areas of improvement.

Given the long history of this publication, several problems will be familiar to some seasoned puzzle enthusiasts but most will still provide a fresh challenge.

A Concise Introduction to Logic

Patrick J. Hurley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Fairly understandable, but the concepts are pointlesss 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

...at least that's my own opinion. I still don't understand the point of turning sentences into tilde's, horseshoes and triple bars in order to figure out if it makes sense! But the book is easy enough to read. And the CD Rom is extremely helpful in the process. I got an A in the class, and mostly depended on the CS Rom.

It contains what you need to know to be a logical person 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Logic is something that all humans believe they practice, but few actually do it with regularity. Sometimes it is inconvenient to be logical, but the vast majority of the time it is due to a failure to understand what the rules of logic are. This book, designed to be a text for a college level course in logic, contains what you will need to be a logical person. The material is for a logic course taught more in a philosophical vein rather than in the mathematical format.
The chapter headings are:

*) Basic concepts
*) Language: Meaning and definition
*) Informal fallacies
*) Categorical propositions
*) Categorical syllogisms
*) Propositional logic
*) Natural deduction in propositional logic
*) Predicate logic
*) Induction

The exposition is conversational in tone and verbal in presentation. There are few formulas in the early chapters and there are a large number of problems at the ends of the sections. Most of the problems are textual in nature, and solutions to many of them are included in an appendix.
This book is a sound choice as a textbook in a course in basic logic; I found some of the examples used in the later chapters of value when talking about predicates in my course on the theory of computation.

Editorial Review:

Tens of thousands of students have learned to be more discerning at constructing and evaluating arguments with the help of Patrick J. Hurley. Hurley's lucid, friendly, yet thorough presentation has made A CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC the most widely used logic text in North America. In addition, the book's accompanying technological resources, such as CengageNOW and Learning Logic, include interactive exercises as well as video and audio clips to reinforce what you read in the book and hear in class. In short, you'll have all the assistance you need to become a more logical thinker and communicator.

The Question of God: Library Edition

Roger Asselineau

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Throughout the ages, many of the world's greatest thinkers have wrestled with the concept of -- and belief in -- God. It may seem unlikely that any new arguments or insights could be raised, but the twentieth century managed to produce two brilliant men with two diametrically opposed views about the question of God: Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. They never had an actual meeting, but in The Question of God, their arguments are placed side by side for the very first time.

For more than twenty-five years, Armand Nicholi has taught a course at Harvard that compares the philosophical arguments of both men. In The Question of God, Dr. Nicholi presents the writings and letters of Lewis and Freud, allowing them to "speak" for themselves on the subject of belief and disbelief. Both men considered the problem of pain and suffering, the nature of love and sex, and the ultimate meaning of life and death -- and each of them thought carefully about the alternatives to their positions.

The inspiration for the PBS series of the same name, The Question of God does not presuppose which man -- Freud the devout atheist or Lewis the atheist-turned-believer -- is correct in his views. Rather, readers are urged to join Nicholi and his students and decide for themselves which path to follow.

Introduction to Logic

Harry Gensler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Gensler's Intro to Logic 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I knew nothing of logic before purchasing this book, and it has definitely helped me dive into the subject. The book offers easy-to-learn methods for testing the validity of syllogisms, as well as ideas on how to create an accurate formula for a logical statement. Overall, Gensler's book is a very helpful introduction to logic.

Great Preparation for Mathematical Logic... 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I had the pleasure of taking Professor Gensler's intro logic course when he was a faculty member at the University of Scranton. Although I still have his old course notes, I picked up a (much nicer) printed copy of his revised book.

Although his logic course is geared more towards philosophy students, I have found it very helpful in brushing up on symbolic logic, as I attempt to study advanced mathematical topics, such as nonstandard analysis, and probability theory. If you work through his course, you shouldn't have much trouble following the proofs in mathematical logic, computer science, or any related discipline.

As an added bonus, your ability to parse natural language into symbolic format should be an unfair advantage in preparation for standardized tests, such as the LSAT or GRE, which have some sections on logical reasoning ability in the verbal sections.

Science and mathematics education would improve quickly if more professors took his computer/book based approach to instruction. I strongly recommend it.

Editorial Review:

Introduction to Logic offers one of the most clear, interesting and accessible introductions to what has long been considered one of the most challenging subjects in philosophy. Harry Gensler engages readers with the basics of logic through practical examples and important arguments in the history of philosophy and from contemporary philosophy. Using simpler and manageable methods for testing arguments, readers are led through in a careful step-by-step way to master the complexities of logic.

On Dialogue

David Bohm

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A very helpful book. 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 16 people found this review helpful.

When you work with people, or as a matter of fact, when you live among people, as we all do, having some knowledge about how interactions work are essential. David Bohm's book On Dialoge is a very handy book on this topic.

In our world everything happens so fast, with modern technology, television, computers, air travel and sattelites. There is a network of communications which has influence on our everyday life. Just push a button and you are in contact with people from all over the world.

How we communicate is a question for all of us. And in On Dialogue David Bohm is helping us to at least find some answers.

The book enlightens topics as on communication, on dialogue, the nature of collective thoughts and many more. We read from the foreword: "Perhaps most importantly, dialogue explores the manner in witch thought is generated and sustained at the collective level."

Read this book, and you will learn alot about your own life, the life you are bond to live in interaction with people around you.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Editorial Review:

"During the past few decades, modern technology, with radio, television, air travel and satellites has woven a network of communications which puts each part of the world into almost instant contact with all the other parts. Yet, in spite of this world-wide system of linkages, there is, at every moment, a general feeling that communication is breaking down everywhere, on an unparalleled scale."

The question of how we can communicate better is at the heart of On Dialogue. This revised and expanded edition is the most comprehensive documentation to date of best-selling author David Bohm's dialogical world view.

Of Grammatology

Jacques Derrida

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

read poetry - it's better for you 1 out of 5 stars.
22 of 72 people found this review helpful.

While it's certainly true that there will always be a gulf between reality and words, communication between reader and writer is nonetheless very real and potentially profound, thanks in no small part to empathy and the imagination. Deconstructionism, by denying presence and instead proposing unlimited differences between signs, dismisses any connection between readers and writers and turns language into a hermetic system separated from the outside world which is, of course, inhabited by people who read and people who write. This is exactly what makes deconstructionism so empty and hypocritical: It rejects traditional metaphysics while adopting a pseudo-mystical position which regards language as some unstable and solipsistic alien creature independent of everything and everyone.

Editorial Review:

"One of the major works in the development of contemporary criticism and philosophy." -- J. Hillis Miller, Yale University

Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of European and American criticism. The ideas in De la grammatologie sparked lively debates in intellectual circles that included students of literature, philosophy, and the humanities, inspiring these students to ask questions of their disciplines that had previously been considered improper. Thirty years later, the immense influence of Derrida's work is still igniting controversy, thanks in part to Gayatri Spivak's translation, which captures the richness and complexity of the original. This corrected edition adds a new index of the critics and philosophers cited in the text and makes one of contemporary criticism's most indispensable works even more accessible and usable.

Finite and Infinite Games

James P. Carse

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Starts out well, then descends to nonsense 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I enjoyed the first chapter of this book. His explanation of what he calls finite games is interesting and can be useful in looking at relationships, politics, entertainment, etc. He draws some nice distinctions between those and what he calls "infinite games," but since infinite games are much harder to explain the book goes awry in the later chapters.

The book is written in a sort of Tralfamadorian-style series of brief sections, each with its own paradoxical and sometimes interesting idea. After the first chapter, though, the style begins to pall and by the third chapter--"I am the Genius of Myself"--paradox becomes an end in itself and a book that had been interesting descends to the merely clever and then to the meaningless. For example, here is the difference between infinite and finite players on the subject of war: "For infinite players, if it possible to wage war without killing a single person [an idea he takes from Rousseau], then it is possible to wage war only without killing a single person." He does not offer any reasons why this is true, or even what it means. In the last five chapters, Carse makes many statements like this. Some are unexplained, some perhaps inexplicable and many that are just silly.

Eventually, the book becomes banal: finite players are bad, infinite players are good. If you must read the book, stop after the second chapter.

Editorial Review:

An extraordinary book that will dramatically change the way you experience life.
Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life, the games we play in business and politics, in the bedroom and on the battlefied -- games with winners and losers, a beginning and an end. Infinite games are more mysterious -- and ultimately more rewarding. They are unscripted and unpredictable; they are the source of true freedom.
In this elegant and compelling work, James Carse explores what these games mean, and what they can mean to you. He offers stunning new insights into the nature of property and power, of culture and community, of sexuality and self-discovery, opening the door to a world of infinite delight and possibility.
"An extraordinary little book . . . a wise and intimate companion, an elegant reminder of the real."
-- Brain/Mind Bulletin