First Order Logic for a complete newbie (book recommendations)?

Question

I signed up for a class that I shouldn't have. So now I'm slightly screwed because I don't understand any of the notation used when my professor was explaining first order logic. I need some book suggestions as to how to re-learn all of these things. For example: I was confused as to what a "quantifier" is (I do know after Googling it). Any good books with plenty of examples? Thanks

Answer 1

Jon Barwise & John Etchemendy, The Language of First-Order Logic (CSLI Press, 1992) is great. A revised and expanded edition was released in 2002, titled Language, Proof and Logic.

Answer 2

The logicians at UCLA have a free logic book covering first-order logic here.

One of the nice things about the book is that it's written to be used in conjunction with a free software program to help learn logic.

I've taught three university logic courses and found the majority of students do much better by completing proofs and derivations in addition to reading about them. That said, if you approach learning logic in the same way as learning mathematics or programming you'll increase your chances for success.