Logic for Mathematicians

By A.G. Hamilton

Book Overview

Intended for logicians and mathematicians, this text is based on Dr. Hamilton's lectures to third and fourth year undergraduates in mathematics at the University of Stirling. With a prerequisite of first year mathematics, the author introduces students and professional mathematicians to the techniques and principal results of mathematical logic. In presenting the subject matter without bias towards particular aspects, applications or developments, it is placed in the context of mathematics. To emphasize the level, the text progresses from informal discussion to the precise description and use of formal mathmematical and logical systems. The revision of this very successful textbook includes new sections on skolemization and the application of well-formed formulae to logic programming; numerous corrections have been made and extra exercises added.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521292913
• ISBN13: 9780521292917
• Release Date: August 1978
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent in the beginning chapters

"Logic for Mathematicians" starts well, giving clear and formal explanations of formal logical systems and the predicate calculus. There are plenty of examples in the book, many of which clarified difficult or poorly worded definitions. I have been using this book recently to help me understand concepts that are much more tersely introduced in Elliott Mendelson's "Introduction to Mathematical Logic". This latter book may be better for it's later proofs (e.g., Godel's incompleteness theorem), but the early explanations of how the formal systems work is more easily understood from "Logic for Mathematicians". I gave it only four stars, though, because it becomes a bit less readable later on.The proof of Godel's theorem is incomplete; instead, the author uses convincing examples to demonstrate the generality of recursive functions and from there shows Godel's results.