{"product_id":"if-a-then-b-how-the-world-discovered-logic-9780231161053","title":"If A, Then B: How the World Discovered Logic","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhile logical principles seem timeless, placeless, and eternal, their discovery is a story of personal accidents, political tragedies, and broad social change. \u003ci\u003eIf A, Then B\u003c\/i\u003e begins with logic's emergence twenty-three centuries ago and tracks its expansion as a discipline ever since. It explores where our sense of logic comes from and what it really is a sense \u003ci\u003eof\u003c\/i\u003e. It also explains what drove human beings to start studying logic in the first place. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLogic is more than the work of logicians alone. Its discoveries have survived only because logicians have also been able to find a willing audience, and audiences are a consequence of social forces affecting large numbers of people, quite apart from individual will. This study therefore treats politics, economics, technology, and geography as fundamental factors in generating an audience for logic--grounding the discipline's abstract principles in a compelling material narrative. The authors explain the turbulent times of the enigmatic Aristotle, the ancient Stoic Chrysippus, the medieval theologian Peter Abelard, and the modern thinkers René Descartes, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, George Boole, Augustus De Morgan, John Stuart Mill, Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Alan Turing. Examining a variety of mysteries, such as why so many branches of logic (syllogistic, Stoic, inductive, and symbolic) have arisen only in particular places and periods, \u003ci\u003eIf A, Then B\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to situate the history of logic within the movements of a larger social world. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf A, Then B\u003c\/i\u003e is the 2013 Gold Medal winner of \u003ci\u003eForeword Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e' IndieFab Book of the Year Award for Philosophy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Michael Shenefelt, Heidi White\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Columbia University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/25\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780231161053\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAward:\u003c\/b\u003e IndieFab awards - Gold Medal Winner","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42711191257225,"sku":"9780231161053","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_91a8ceb7-df37-4f47-a8c8-4a850a970400.jpg?v=1719563547","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/if-a-then-b-how-the-world-discovered-logic-9780231161053","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}