Logic : a very short introduction / Graham Priest.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-122) and indexes.

Validity : what follows from what? -- Truth functions : or not? -- Names and quantifiers : is nothing something? -- Descriptions and existence : did the Greeks worship Zeus? -- Self-reference : what is this chapter about? -- Necessity and possibility : what will be must be? -- Conditionals : what's in an if? -- The future and the past : is time real? -- Identity and change : is anything ever the same? -- Vagueness :how do you stop sliding down a slippery slope? -- Probability : the strange case of the missing reference class -- Inverse probability : you can't be indifferent about it -- Decision theory : great expectations -- A little history and some further reading.

Logic is often perceived as an esoteric subject, having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. In this lively and accessible introduction, Graham Priest shows how wrong this conception is. He explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic deals with issues ranging from the existence of God and the reality of time to paradoxes of self-reference, change, and probability. Along the way, the book explains the basic ideas of formal logic in simple, non-technical terms, as well as the philosophical pressures to which these have responded. This is a book for anyone who has ever been puzzled by a piece of reasoning."--Jacket.