Desh Raj Sirswal

“In a Republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of the first importance.”-Thomas Jefforson

Higher education is meant to enrich the intellectual prowess of the learners and to promote a respect for reason. It is not enough to know the answers to the questions asked: it is equally important to learn to question the answers. A critical, systematically inquiring mind is the end result of a proper intellectual training. Logic is the study of the methods and principles used to distinguish correct from incorrect reasoning. Study of logic is an effective tool for achieving these goals. Furthermore, mere delivery of information to the students does not teach them how to organize or systematize their thoughts, or how to assess what they have received. While teaching some effective time –tested methods for processing, analyzing and evaluating information, study of logic also teaches how to enrich one’s intellectual life with a logical approach.

These class notes were prepared for first paper entitled Principles of Logic in Diploma-in-Reasoning of Department of Philosophy, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra,  to help the students, when I taught in this course last three years. Basically I used collection of materials from different sources viz. printed books as well as internet sources to prepare it. You can find our course syllabus in my post “Philosophy is Nothing without Logic” at The Positive Philosophy page. This is only a first draft, kindly send your suggestions and ideas to dr.sirswal@gmail.com or niyamak.drs@gmail.com, I shall be highly thankful to you and a short list of books are mentioned below the Table of Contents and reference sites are linked with this  page. This page introduces the basic conceptions of formal logic, informal logic and also Symbolic logic.

Go to the Page:

A Class-Room Introduction to Logic