Symbolic Logic

Lewis Carroll, the Victorian wizard behind Alice in Wonderland, turns his genius for playful explanation to the dry terrain of formal logic. This is not the stiff, impenetrable logic textbook you might expect. It is a curious, charming introduction to symbolic reasoning, full of games, puzzles, and the kinds of paradoxes that make your brain itch in satisfying ways. Carroll builds logical premises like he built wonderlands: methodically, with surprise. He introduces terms like 'things' and 'attributes,' shows how to construct syllogisms, and gradually builds toward concepts that would prefigure modern formal logic. The book includes his famous Barber-shop paradox and letters to prominent nineteenth-century logicians, revealing a man who took logic seriously enough to have fun with it. Part II, the advanced section, was never published in Carroll's lifetime, discovered only decades later. For puzzle lovers, math enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to see how the author of 'curiouser and curiouser' makes deduction delightful.