Logical New Introduction -- How to Distinguish Right from Wrong (Works by Yin Haiguang)

Author: Yin Haiguang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: This book can be said to be a product of the author's experience in teaching logic. Over the years, general readers have found logic dull and uninteresting. To solve this problem, thirteen years ago, the author tried writing an introductory book on logic in a dialogue format. Comparing the sales numbers of similar books, it has been proven that the author's approach of using a dialogue format to write such books meets the general needs. After coming to Taiwan, the author continued teaching this course, but the book had already gone out of print. To meet the needs of teaching, the author wrote another manual in a dialogue format, which was printed by the school. The content of this manual was improved compared to the previous book. After the manual was printed, it was shelved for another four years, and the author did not use it again. During these four years, students frequently asked the author to recommend logic reading materials. Such incidents made the author feel that it was necessary to revise the manual into a book format. However, when reviewing the manual last year, the author realized that many things that should have been included were not, and that many parts were simply outdated. Therefore, the author undertook a major revision. To be serious, this book is the third time the author has written such a book in a dialogue format. According to British and American standards, this book includes all the topics that should be covered in basic logic courses in Britain and America, at least most of them. However, in the treatment of these topics, the author still made some different weightings. The author's weightings are based on the following conditions: 1. Emphasizing applications; 2. Emphasizing the training of pure logic; 3. Introducing new perspectives; 4. Correcting errors in traditional logic; 5. Presenting the author's contributions when necessary. Based on these five conditions, in addition to the factors incorporated to suit the format and objectives of this book, the author has elaborated more on some existing logic topics and less on others in this book. For topics that some people consider to be logic topics but are not considered to be within the scope of logic from a modern logical perspective, the author does not cover them at all. Where the author believes it would be a waste of the reader's time, the author is reluctant to write more; where the author believes the reader should study, the author is not averse to spending more words. In some places, there are still many logic textbooks that continue to repeat the grammar, psychology, epistemology, and even some components of ethics and metaphysics that are mixed in traditional logic. How much help does this provide in improving the reader's reasoning ability? When selecting logic textbooks, we should not overlook the significant developments in logic in Europe and America in recent decades.
III. Since this book is based on the author's experience in teaching logic, almost every question and turn in the dialogue reflects common issues encountered by those learning basic logic. In the process of learning, if the problems that most people may encounter are not too far apart, the author hopes this book will be helpful to those who wish to study logic on their own, just as it is helpful to those who are studying basic logic at the university. Writing a logic book in this format is particularly challenging for the author. Of course, if one person finds it difficult while most people benefit from it, that is a worthwhile endeavor. However, what the author hopes is that readers can train rigorous reasoning skills under relatively less effort, even reaching the solemn halls of logic. Therefore, when effort is unavoidable, the reader must also exert themselves. To master any science, one must inevitably delve into the details, otherwise, we will always remain at the superficial level. After delving into the details, if we gain some wisdom, it means we have reached a point of progress. Yin Haiguang