Logic Made Easy by Deborah Bennett, W. W. Norton, $24.95, ISBN 0393057488 Reviewed by Mike Holderness
FOR this reviewer, work avoidance has consisted recently of arguing online with those who believe that global climate change is a scam that has been cooked up by envious environmentalists, maliciously to deprive them of the sports utility vehicles that said greenies notably don鈥檛 want. Frequently, these arguments take a philosophical turn. They may start by pointing out the little logical contradiction in the above and progress to the meanings of the words 鈥渒now鈥� and 鈥渕eaning鈥�.
Logic, as Deborah Bennett has found while teaching mathematics at New Jersey City University, is all too rare. It is not just conspiracy nuts who fail to recognise, for instance, the distinction between 鈥渢here is not evidence that鈥� and 鈥渆vidence that there is not鈥�. Folk-logics are much more widespread 鈥� particularly those motivated by the axiom 鈥渆verything happens for a reason鈥�.
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Bennett promises an examination of such illogic. But what she provides, mostly, is an accessible and sometimes entertaining history of proper logic from Artistotle on, complete with puzzles, some of which are as likely to deceive you as anyone else. This is not the panacea to the annoyance of false logic that she apparently hoped to produce, but there is no existence proof for that.