Art of Reasoning : An Introduction to Logic, Fifth Edition

David Kelly and Debby Hutchins



Contents in Brief
PART ONE Language and Reasoning
    CHAPTER 1 Language: Concepts and Propositions 2
    CHAPTER 2 Argument Analysis 57
    CHAPTER 3 Fallacies 105
    CHAPTER 4 Cognitive Biases 147
PART TWO Deductive Logic
    CHAPTER 5 Categorical Propositions 197
    CHAPTER 6 Categorical Syllogisms 233
    CHAPTER 7 Reasoning with Syllogisms 275
    CHAPTER 8 Propositional Logic 318
    CHAPTER 9 Natural Deduction in Propositional Logic 380
    CHAPTER 10 Predicate Logic 437
PART THREE Inductive Logic
    CHAPTER 11 Generalization and Causality 518
    CHAPTER 12 Analogical, Legal and Moral Reasoning 544
    CHAPTER 13 Statistical Reasoning 569
    CHAPTER 14 Probability 597
    CHAPTER 15 Explanation and Science 627

About the Authors
David Kelley earned his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University. He has taught at Vassar College and Brandeis University, and written extensively in epistemology and other fields.

Debby Hutchins earned her PhD in philosophy from Boston College and has taught at Texas A&M University, Boston College, Fitchburg State University, Gonzaga University, and South Texas College. She has received numerous awards for teaching logic, and her research focuses on the application of cognitive science to logic pedagogy.


The Art of Reasoning is a textbook designed for courses in introductory logic or critical thinking. From the very beginning, through many editions, The Art of Reasoning has had a practical focus, reflected in its title. Logic is an art as well as a science. The art of reasoning is of vital importance for all the issues we confront and all the decisions we make, in every domain of life. The organization of the text, the exercises, and the learning tools are designed to interest and motivate students by showing the difference good reasoning can make in their studies—and in their lives.

New in the Fifth Edition
Informed by years of teaching experience and research on how students best learn logic, the Fifth Edition makes The Art of Reasoning an even more effective teaching tool for introductory logic. Debby Hutchins, an expert logic teacher and learning researcher, joins the Fifth Edition as coauthor.

• InQuizitive, Norton’s award-winning, easy-to-use adaptive learning tool, personalizes the learning experience for students and helps them master—and retain—key learning objectives.
• Review, Solve, and Apply features give students a consistent framework for working and understanding the problems.
• Exercises are designed in incremental fashion, now in three tiers of increasing integration. This improved scaffolding reinforces mastery and builds confidence as students work through each chapter.
• A new chapter on cognitive biases, persuasion, and false or slanted news highlights how we can fool ourselves and be fooled by information sources.
• Chapters on induction have new sections on legal and moral reasoning, Bayes’ theorem in probability, and pseudoscience.