The Language of First-Order Logic : Including the IBM-compatible Windows version of Tarski's World 4.0

Rating:
Summary: Good intro (Tarski's World!), limited to standard models.
Review: This is an excellent introduction to first order predicate logic. The book is most valuable because of the supplementary Tarski's World program which helps the reader to visualize and practise logic. The only drawback is that without much comment the authors use an *interpreted* language, i.e. the intended meaning of, for example, "left of" is represented in the models, in other words, only standard models are considered. This also leads to ad hoc distinctions between, e.g., "tautology" and "logical validity". However, in school or university, this disadvantage can be repaired by giving the complementary view in the lectures.

The book has been used in our curriculum (major Language and AI, Tilburg University) over a number of years and with considerable success. For the novice, I even prefer it over our own Dutch text book (van Eijck & Thijsse - Logica voor Alfa's en Informatici, Academic Serice, 1989).