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A Concise Introduction To Logic 13th Edition Ebook PDF
A Concise Introduction To Logic 13th Edition Ebook PDF
CONTENTS vii
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7 Natural Deduction in Propositional Logic 403
7.1 Rules of Implication I 403
Exercise 7.1 411
viii CONTENTS
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PA RT I I I INDUCTIVE LOGIC
9 Analogy and Legal and Moral Reasoning 540
9.1 Analogical Reasoning 540
9.2 Legal Reasoning 543
9.3 Moral Reasoning 547
Exercise 9 551
11 Probability 585
11.1 Theories of Probability 585
11.2 The Probability Calculus 589
Exercise 11 599
x CONTENTS
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Preface
The most immediate benefit derived from the study of logic is the
skill needed to construct sound arguments of one’s own and to
evaluate the arguments of others. In accomplishing this goal, logic
instills a sensitivity for the formal component in language, a thor-
ough command of which is indispensable to clear, effective, and
meaningful communication. On a broader scale, by focusing at-
tention on the requirement for reasons or evidence to support our
views, logic provides a fundamental defense against the prejudiced
and uncivilized attitudes that threaten the foundations of our dem-
ocratic society. Finally, through its attention to inconsistency as a
Logic : The key to all learning fatal flaw in any theory or point of view, logic proves a useful de-
vice in disclosing ill-conceived policies in the political sphere and,
ultimately, in distinguishing the rational from the irrational, the sane from the insane. This
book is written with the aim of securing these benefits.
xi
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● Dialogue exercises illustrate the application of logical principles to real-life situations.
● Venn diagrams for syllogisms are presented in a novel and more effective way, using
color to identify the relevant areas.
● End-of-chapter summaries facilitate student review.
● The solution to every third exercise is provided in the Answer section, so students
can easily check their work.
● Important rules and tables are printed on the inside covers for ready access, and
they are also presented on a tear-out card.
xii PREFACE
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Annotated Answers We have added explanations to the exercise answers, detailing
why the answer is correct, for most sections of Chapter 1 (Sections 1.1–1.4) and Chap-
ter 3 (Sections 3.1–3.4).
Writing Exercises Any set of exercises that did not already include a writing activity
now does. These new writing activities require students to create a short example of a con-
cept presented in the section, such as an explanation, a deductive argument, or a dispute.
In performing this activity, students are further engaged and retention is reinforced.
Living Logic This integrative digital activity helps students apply their logic skills to
a current real-world problem: climate change. It offers exercises targeted to the content
of Chapters 1 through 7, bringing to life the practical and relevant nature of this content.
Chapter Tests These multiple-choice questions, offered as PDFs in the prior edition
of MindTap, are now available, at the end of each chapter, as gradable interactive quizzes.
Visualizing Inferences This new technique, introduced in Chapter 7 (Natural De-
duction in Propositional Logic) uses geometrical shapes in the place of “p” and “q” to
help students visually understand the rules of inference. The technique is introduced in
the textbook and expanded in MindTap. We have also added exercises that offer prac-
tice in creating instances of the rules of inference.
Well-Formed Formulas A more detailed account of this subject supplements the
account found in Chapter 6 of the textbook.
PREFACE xiii
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Chapter 4
● New exercises have been added to Sections 4.1 and 4.2.
● A subsection entitled “Boole, Venn, and Existential Import” has been written to ad-
dress student questions about the Boolean standpoint, which makes no assumption
as to whether the things referred to actually exist. Students often ask about the util-
ity of a logic that deals with nonexisting things. This subsection also sketches the
history of the Boolean standpoint in the nineteenth century.
● The concept of vacuous falsity is introduced in Section 4.3.
● A note, added to Section 4.5, addresses the truth value of statements such as “All
unicorns are two-horned animals,” and “Some unicorns are one-horned animals.”
Chapter 6
● Truth tables are now introduced using the technique of writing the truth values of
the simple propositions to the left of the truth table and using those truth values to
generate the truth values of the compound propositions. The presentation of this
technique is followed by the abbreviated technique whereby truth values are entered
initially beneath the simple components of the compound propositions.
● New exercises for using truth tables to test arguments for validity have been added
to Section 6.4.
● Section 6.6 has been reorganized so that the valid argument forms are introduced in
the same order as the inference forms in Section 7.1. Also, the invalid forms (affirm-
ing the consequent and denying the antecedent) are assigned to a separate subsec-
tion to help prevent their being confused with the valid forms.
Chapter 7
● A new way of visualizing modus ponens and disjunctive syllogism, using squares and
circles, is introduced to aid students who learn best through visual imagery. This
technique is expanded in MindTap.
● In Section 7.3 a dialogue entitled “New Cradle” replaces “With This Ring.”
Chapter 10
● A simpler characterization of the joint method of agreement and difference is given
to ease students through the more complicated definition of this method.
Chapter 11
● A brief account is given of recent applications of Bayes’s theorem. These include the
attempt to use Bayes’s theorem to locate Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Chapter 12
● A paragraph has been added to show how samples become biased in clinical trials
intended to disclose drug side effects.
● A brief explanation is given as to how pharmaceutical companies use tricks with
percentages to mislead customers.
xiv PREFACE
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Chapter 14
● An account is given explaining how large corporations undermine the integrity
of science by enlisting the services of university scientists to sway public opinion
regarding the safety of their products.
The interviewer quickly responds that this weakness could create big problems.
“Why is that?” you ask.
“Because reasoning skills are essential to good judgment. And without good judgment
your creativity will lead to projects that make no sense. Your leadership skills will
direct our other employees in circles. Your enthusiasm will undermine everything we have
accomplished up until now. And your working long hours will make things even worse.”
“But don’t you think there is some position in your company that is right for me?” you ask.
The interviewer thinks for a moment and then replies, “We have a competitor on the
other side of town. I hear they are hiring right now. Why don’t you apply with them?”
The point of this brief dialogue is that good reasoning skills are essential to doing any-
thing right. The business person uses reasoning skills in writing a report or preparing
a presentation; the scientist uses them in designing an experiment or clinical trial, the
department manager uses them in maximizing worker efficiency, the lawyer uses them
in composing an argument to a judge or jury. And that’s where logic comes in. The
chief purpose of logic is to develop good reasoning skills. In fact, logic is so important
that when the liberal arts program of studies was formulated fifteen hundred years ago,
logic was selected as one of the original seven liberal arts. Logic remains to this day a
central component of a college or university education.
From a more pragmatic angle, logic is important to earning a good score on any of
the several tests required for admission to graduate professional schools—the LSAT,
GMAT, MCAT, GRE, and so on. Obviously, the designers of these tests recognize that
the ability to reason logically is a prerequisite to success in these fields. Also, logic is a
useful tool in relieving what has come to be called math anxiety. For whatever reason,
countless students today are terrified of any form of reasoning that involves abstract
symbols. If you happen to be one of these students, you should find it relatively easy to
master the use of logical symbols, and your newly found comfort with these symbols
will carry over into the other, more difficult fields.
In addition to the existing and new features described in the “New to This Edition”
section of this preface, MindTap also includes the following supplements. Critical
PREFACE xv
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Thinking and Writing offers practice in writing arguments about real-life topics; Truth
Trees presents a standard introduction to the method of truth trees, which can be used
as a supplement or alternative to the truth-table method; and Logic and Graduate-
Level Admission Tests shows how the principles learned in studying logic can be used
to answer questions on the LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, and GRE. Finally, Existential Import
traces the history of existential import through the logic of Aristotle and George Boole.
Among the MindTap offerings that I would especially urge you to investigate is Learning
Logic. This interactive tutorial program teaches the basics of the entire course in a very
user-friendly way. It tracks the textbook chapter by chapter, but your computer must be
equipped with speakers or headphones, because the audio component is essential.
To promote the achievement of this goal, this new edition features selections entitled
“How Logical Are You?” at the beginning of chapter sections, that are designed to get
students thinking, activate prior learning, and induce the students to read the section
that follows. The instructor can also use these selections as springboards for in-class
lectures. While the inclusion of these selections is probably the most visible change in
the new edition, as you proceed through the book you will encounter numerous less-
visible improvements. Many of them are listed previously in “New Chapter Content,”
and a complete list is given in the Instructor’s Manual.
xvi PREFACE
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practice. Aplia’s simple-to-use course management interface allows instructors to post
announcements, host student discussions, e-mail students, and manage the grade
book. Personalized help is available from a knowledgeable and friendly support team.
To learn more, ask your Cengage Learning sales representative for a demonstration, or
view a specific demonstration for this book at www.aplia.com.
Also note that the Instructor’s Companion Website contains the Instructor’s Manual
and the Test Bank. The Instructor’s Manual includes answers to all the book’s exer-
cises and a complete list of the improvements introduced in this edition. The 600-page
author-generated Test Bank includes numerous tests for each chapter in the book, and
most of them are in easily gradable multiple-choice format.
This thirteenth edition marks a break with its predecessors in that it has a coauthor, Lori
Watson. One of Professor Watson’s contributions has been to ensure that the new edition
engages the interests of today’s students. When we began our collaboration we split up the
work so that Professor Watson would focus mainly on the online material, while Profes-
sor Hurley would revise the hard-copy book. But as work progressed, it turned out that
each of us contributed to both areas. For example, Watson wrote the piece on the value
of studying logic following this preface, and she contributed to many of the new exercises
and the “How Logical Are You?” selections, while Hurley contributed to some of the on-
line annotated answers to the exercises and the Living Logic activity.
Type of Course
Informal logic
Traditional course, critical- Course emphasizing
logic course reasoning course modern formal logic
Recommended Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Chapter 1
material Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Sections 4.1–4.3
Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Section 4.7
Chapter 5 Chapter 4 Sections 6.1–6.5
Chapter 6 Sections 5.1–5.3 Chapter 7
Sections 7.1–7.4 Sections 5.5–5.6 Chapter 8
Sections 6.1–6.4 Truth Trees supplement
Section 6.6
Chapter 9
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Critical Thinking and
Writing supplement
PREFACE xvii
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Let us now turn to alternate ways of approaching the textbook. In general, the material
in each chapter is arranged so that certain later sections can be skipped without affecting
subsequent chapters. For example, those wishing a brief treatment of natural deduction in
both propositional and predicate logic may want to skip the last three sections of Chapter
7 and the last four (or even five) sections of Chapter 8. Chapter 2 can be skipped alto-
gether, although some may want to cover the first section of that chapter as an introduc-
tion to Chapter 3. Finally, Chapters 9 through 14 depend only slightly on earlier chapters,
so these can be treated in any order one chooses. However, Chapter 14 does depend in
part on Chapter 13.
Digital Options
A Concise Introduction to Logic is available in multiple formats, including as a printed
textbook that can be bought alone [ISBN: 9781305958098], and it can be combined
with digital solutions in a variety of ways, including the following:
1. MindTap (alone) [ISBN: 9781305959644]. Available with the interactive eBook (MindTap
Reader), this option includes Learning Logic (the tutorial), Aplia quizzing assignments, videos (covering
difficult-to-master topics), chapter learning path activities, quizzing, and appendices. Available only at
www.cengagebrain.com, this option can be a cost-saving choice for students.
2. Aplia (alone) [ISBN: 9781305959712]. Available with the interactive eBook (MindTap
Reader), this option includes everything in Option 2 except the printed textbook. Available only at
www.cengagebrain.com, this option can be a cost-saving choice for students.
Acknowledgments
For their reviews and suggestions leading to this thirteenth edition I want to thank the
following:
Karl Aho, Baylor University; Benjamin Arah, Bowie State University; Peter Barry, Saginaw Valley
State University; Jeff Broome, Arapahoe Community College; Louis Colombo, Bethune-Cookman
University; Rosibel Cruz, Harold Washington College; Benjamin Easton, Azusa Pacific University;
Samantha Emswiler, John Tyler Community College; William Ferraiolo, San Joaquin Delta College;
Albert Filice, Mesa Community College; Paul Gass, Coppin State University; Dimitria Gatzia,
University of Akron Wayne College; Douglas Hill, Saddleback College and Golden West College;
Ron Jackson, Clayton State University; Stephen Leach, University of Texas–Pan American; Chris
Lorkowski, Kent State University–Trumbull Campus; Leemon McHenry, California State University
Northridge; Daniel Metz, Metropolitan State College of Denver (Program chair at CCCOnline);
Mike Monge, Orange Coast College; Tim O’Neill, Rochester Community and Technical College;
Christopher Pallotti, Los Angeles Valley College/CSUN; Sean Stidd, Wayne State University; Corine
Sutherland, Cerritos College; Catherine S. Sutton,Virginia Commonwealth University; Michael Thune,
Joliet Junior College; Dennis Weiss, York College of Pennsylvania; Elaine Yoshikawa, Arizona State
University; Xiaoyu Zhu, Antelope Valley College.
xviii PREFACE
Copyright 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Of course any errors or omissions that may remain are the result of my own oversight.
Those who have contributed reviews and suggestions leading to the twelve previous
editions, and to whom I express my continued thanks, are the following:
James T. Anderson, University of San Diego; Carol Anthony,Villanova University; Joseph Asike, Howard
University; Harriet E. Baber, University of San Diego; Kent Baldner, Western Michigan University;
James Baley, Mary Washington College; Jerome Balmuth, Colgate University; Victor Balowitz, State
University of New York, College at Buffalo; Ida Baltikauskas, Century College; Gary Baran, Los
Angeles City College; Robert Barnard, University of Mississippi; Peter Barry, Saginaw Valley State
University; Gregory Bassham, Kings College; Thora Bayer, Xavier University of Louisiana; David
Behan, Agnes Scott College; John Bender, Ohio University, Athens; James O. Bennett, University of
Tennessee, Knoxville; Victoria Berdon, IUPU Columbus; Robert Berman, Xavier University of
Louisana; Kevin Berry, Ohio University; Joseph Bessie, Normandale Community College; John R.
Bosworth, Oklahoma State University; Andrew Botterell, University of Toronto; Jeff Broome,
Arapahoe Community College; Tom Browder, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Harold Brown,
Northern Illinois University; Kevin Browne, Indiana University Southeast; Ken Buckman, University of
Texas, Pan American; Robert Burch, Texas A&M University; Keith Burgess-Jackson, University of Texas,
Arlington; Michael Byron, Kent State University; Scott Calef, Ohio Wesleyan University; Gabriel
Camacho, El Paso Community College; James Campbell, University of Toledo; Joseph Keim Campbell,
Washington State University; Loren Cannon, Humboldt State University; Charles Carr, Arkansas
State University; William Carroll, Coppin State University; Jennifer Caseldine-Bracht, IUPU Fort
Wayne; John Casey, Northern Illinois University; Robert Greg Cavin, Cypress College; Ping-Tung
Chang, University of Alaska; Prakash Chenjeri, Southern Oregon University; Drew Christie, University
of New Hampshire; Timothy Christion, University of North Texas; Ralph W. Clarke, West Virginia
University; David Clowney, Rowan University; Darryl Cohen, Mesa Community College; Michael
Cole, College of William and Mary; Michael Coledu, Reedley College; Louis Colombo, Bethune-
Cookman University; Michael J. Colson, Merced College;William F. Cooper, Baylor University;William
Cornwell, Salem State College; Victor Cosculluela, Polk Community College; Mike Coste, Front
Range Community College; Ronald R. Cox, San Antonio College; Houston A. Craighead, Winthrop
University; Donald Cress, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb; Jack Crumley, University of San Diego;
Drew Dalton, Florida Southern College; Linda Damico, Kennesaw State University; Ray Darr,
Southern Illinois University; William J. DeAngelis, Northeastern University; Joseph DeMarco,
Cleveland State University; Paul DeVries, Wheaton College; Jill Dieterle, Eastern Michigan University;
Mary Domski, University of New Mexico; Beverly R. Doss and Richard W. Doss, Orange Coast
College; Paul Draper, Purdue University; William A. Drumin, King’s College, Pennsylvania; Clinton
Dunagan, Saint Philips College; Jeffrey Easlick, Saginaw Valley State University; Paul Eckstein, Bergen
Community College; Anne M. Edwards, Austin Peay State University; Michael Epperson, California
State University, Sacramento; Lenore Erickson, Cuesta College; Cassandra Evans, San Diego City
College; Frank Fair, Sam Houston State University; Evan Fales, University of Iowa; Thompson Faller,
University of Portland; William Ferraiolo, San Joaquin Delta College; Albert Filice, Mesa Community
College; Lewis S. Ford, Old Dominion University; Gary Foulk, Indiana State University, Terre Haute;
Timothy C. Fout, University of Louisville; LeAnn Fowler, Slippery Rock University; Craig Fox,
California University of Pennsylvania; Thomas H. Franks, Eastern Michigan University; Bernard D.
Freydberg, Slippery Rock University; Thomas J. Frost, Biola University/Long Beach City College; Dick
Gaffney, Siena College; George Gale, University of Missouri–Kansas City; Pieranna Garavaso,
University of Minnesota at Morris; Paul Gass, Coppin State University; Dimitria Gatzia,The University
of Akron Wayne College; Joseph Georges, El Camino College; Kevin Gibson, University of Colorado;
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James Granitto, Santiago Canyon College; Victor Grassian, Los Angeles Harbor College; Catherine
Green, Rockhurst University; James Greene, Northern Michigan University; Harold Greenstein,
SUNY Brockport; J. Randall Groves, Ferris State University; Shahrokh Haghighi, California State
University; Alexander W. Hall, Clayton State University; Dean Hamden, Montclair State University;
Courtney Hammond, Cuyamaca College; Ken Hanly, Brandon University; Anthony Hanson, West
Valley College; Merle Harton, Edward Waters College; Larry Hauser, Alma College; Deborah Heikes,
University of Alabama in Huntsville; Ryan Hickerson, Western Oregon University; Ronald Hill,
University of San Diego; Lawrence Hinman, University of San Diego; Lynn Holt, Mississippi State
University; Jeremy Hovda, Minneapolis Community & Technical College; John B. Howell, III,
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; R. I. G. Hughes, University of South Carolina, Columbia;
Peter Hutcheson, Texas State University; Debby Hutchins, Gonzaga University; William H. Hyde,
Golden West College; Ron Jackson, Clayton State University; William Jamison, University of Alaska
Anchorage; Sandra Johanson, Green River Community College; Gary Jones, University of San Diego;
Richard A. Jones, Howard University; Russel Jones, University of Oklahoma; Glenn C. Joy, Texas State
University, San Marcos; Olin Joynton, North Harris County College; Grant Julin, St. Francis University;
Patrick Kenny, Onondaga Community College; Glen Kessler, University of Virginia; Charles F. Kielkopf,
Ohio State University; Moya Kinchla, Bakersfield College; Kristin Klamm-Doneen, Anoka Ramsey
Community College; Bernard W. Kobes, Arizona State University; Keith W. Krasemann, College of
DuPage; Richard La Croix, State University College at Buffalo; Sandra LaFave, West Valley College,
Saratoga, California; William Lawhead, University of Mississippi; Stephen Leach, UTPA; Richard Lee,
University of Arkansas; Lory Lemke, University of Minnesota, Morris; Robert Levis, Pasadena City
College; Chenyang Li, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois; Chris M. Lorkowski, Kent State
University; Keane Lundt, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts; Ardon Lyon, City University of
London; Scott MacDonald, University of Iowa; Ian MacKinnon, The University of Akron; Krishna
Mallick, Salem State College; Thomas Manig, University of Missouri–Columbia; James Manns,
University of Kentucky; Dalman Mayer, Bellevue Community College; Larry D. Mayhew, Western
Kentucky University; Leemon McHenry, California State University Northridge; Robert McKay,
Norwich University; Rick McKita, Colorado State University; Phillip McReynolds, Pennsylvania State
University; Erik Meade, Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville; Noel Merino, Humboldt State
University; Kenneth R. Merrill, University of Oklahoma; Daniel Metz, Metropolitan State College of
Denver; Thomas Michaud, Wheeling Jesuit College; Alexander Miller, Piedmont Technical College;
Dolores Miller, University of Missouri–Kansas City; George D. Miller, DePaul University; Richard
Miller, East Carolina University; Frederick Mills, Bowie State University; Jeff Mitchell, Arkansas Tech
University; John Mize, Long Beach City College; Allyson Mount, Keene State College; Seyed Mousavian,
University of Alberta; Dwayne Mulder, California State University, Fresno; John D. Mullen, Dowling
College; Madeline Muntersbjorn, University of Toledo; Henry Nardone, Kings College; Nathaniel
Nicol, Washington State University; Theresa Norman, South Texas Community College; David
O’Connor, Seton Hall University; Len Olsen, Georgia Southern University; Tim O’Neill, Rochester
Community and Technical College; Elane O’Rourke, Moorpark College; Brendan O’Sullivan, Rhodes
College; Stephen Pacheco, University of San Diego; Joseph Pak, Los Angeles City College; Christopher
Pallotti, Los Angeles Valley College/CSUN; Christopher Pearson, Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville; Rodney Peffer, University of San Diego; Linda Peterson, University of San Diego; Robert
G. Pielke, El Camino College; Cassandra Pinnick, Western Kentucky University; Nelson Pole,
Cleveland State University; Norman Prigge, Bakersfield State University; Gray Prince, West Los
Angeles College; R. Puligandla, University of Toledo; T. R. Quigley, Oakland University; Nani Rankin,
Indiana University at Kokomo; Robert Redmon, Virginia Commonwealth University; Bruce
Reichenbach, Augsburg College; Herminia Reyes, San Diego State University; Fernando Rincon-Tellez,
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Piedmont Technical College; David Ring, Southern Methodist University; Tony Roark, Boise State
University; Matthew Roberts, Patrick Henry College; Michael Rooney, Pasadena City College; Phyllis
Rooney, Oakland University; Beth Rosdatter, University of Kentucky; Michelle M. Rotert, Rock Valley
College; Paul A. Roth, University of Missouri–Saint Louis; Daniel Rothbart, George Mason University;
Robert Rupert, University of Colorado, Boulder; Sam Russo, El Camino College; Frank Ryan, Kent
State University; Eric Saidel, George Washington University; Kelly Salsbery, Stephen F. Austin State
University; Paul Santelli, Siena College; Stephen Satris, Clemson University; Philip Schneider, George
Mason University; James D. Schumaker, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Stephanie Semler,
Radford University; Pat Sewell, University of North Texas; Elizabeth Shadish, El Camino College;
Joseph G. Shay, Boston College; Candice Shelby, University of Colorado Denver; Janet Simpson,
Suffolk County Community College; Robert Skipper, St. Mary’s University; Aeon Skoble, Bridgewater
State College; Matthew Slater, Bucknell University; Kent Slinker, Pima Community College; Dennis L.
Slivinski, California State University, Channel Islands; Arnold Smith, Youngstown State University;
John-Christian Smith, Youngstown State University; Joshua Smith, Central Michigan University; Paula
Smithka, University of Southern Mississippi; Eric W. Snider, University of Toledo; Bob Snyder,
Humboldt University; Joseph Snyder, Anne Arundel Community College; Lynne Spellman, University
of Arkansas; David Stern, University of Iowa; James Stuart, Bowling Green State University; Paul
Studtmann, Davidson College; Krys Sulewski, Edmonds Community College; John Sullins, Sonoma
State University; Weimin Sun, California State University, Northridge; Corine Sutherland, Cerritos
College; Robert Sutton, Cape Fear Community College; John Sweigart, James Madison University;
Clarendon Swift, Moorpark College; Wayne Swindall, California Baptist College; Mojgan Taheri,
California State University, Northridge; Brian Tapia, Foothill College; Bangs Tapscott, University of
Utah; J. Ramon Tello, Shasta College; Mark Thames, El Centro College; Jan Thomas, University of
Arkansas at Little Rock; Phil Thompson, Eastern Illinois University; Michael Thune, Joliet Junior
College; Richard Tieszen, San Jose State University; Larry Udell, West Chester University; Ted Ulrich,
Purdue University; Robert Urekew, University of Louisville; William Uzgalis, Oregon State University;
William Vanderburgh, Wichita State University; Michael Ventimiglia, Sacred Heart University; Susan
Vineberg, Wayne State University; Mark Vopat, Youngstown State University; Thomas H. Warren,
Solano College; Andrew J. Waskey, Dalton State University; Roy Weatherford, University of South
Florida; Chris Weigand, Our Lady of the Lake University; David Weinburger, Stockton State College;
Paul Weirich, University of Missouri–Columbia; David Weise, Gonzaga University; Dennis Weiss, York
College of Pennsylvania; Robert Wengert, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; Shannon
Grace Werre, Edmonds Community College; Gerald Joseph Williams, Seton Hall University; Derrick
Willis, Temple College; Frank Wilson, Bucknell University; W. Kent Wilson, University of Illinois,
Chicago; Katherine D.Witzig, Southwestern Illinois College; Sandra Woien, Mesa Community College;
Stephen Wykstra, Calvin College; Julie Yoo, California State University, Northridge; Marie Zaccaria,
Georgia Perimeter College; Jeffrey Zents, University of Texas; Xiaoyu Zhu, Antelope Valley College.
Finally, it has been a pleasure working with philosophy editor Debra Matteson, product
director Paul Banks, content developer Florence Kilgo, production supervisor Greg Hubit,
copy editor Marne Evans, and proofreader Debra Nichols. Most of all, I want to thank my
wife, Linda Peterson, for her countless suggestions and support.
PREFACE xxi
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Why Study Logic?
Logic can be a challenging subject for beginners. Much like learning a new language,
it takes patience and hard work to master the skills necessary to truly excel at logic.
Given that challenging work can sometimes prove frustrating, students often wonder
why logic is a required course for their major, or what the real value of learning logic
truly is. This latter concern is often expressed as: How does logic help me in the “real”
world? Given that students raise this question over and over, it’s worthwhile to provide
an answer right at the beginning of this textbook.
On the first day of any logic class, we ask our students if they regularly go to the gym.
The majority say that they do. We then ask them what they do at the gym; many reply
that they walk or run on a treadmill and that they lift weights. We ask them “why do
you do this?” After all, they are not likely to encounter a treadmill in “real” life or to
bench press weights in any other than a gym setting. As the dialogue continues, students
eventually reveal that the reason they do these specific activities in the gym is because by
doing so they build or maintain the muscles they need for other activities they enjoy do-
ing, such as, surfing, hiking, biking, skateboarding, or just going for a walk on the beach.
We tell them that doing logic is, in many ways, like going to the gym for your brain.
While you may never be called upon to do a formal logic proof in the context of your
everyday activities, learning how to construct such a proof hones the skills needed for
those routine activities. If asked what distinguishes human beings from the rest of the
animal kingdom, one common answer is that humans have the ability to reason in a
particular way. Learning the various techniques of logic improves and perfects that
very reasoning ability that is so essential to our being human.
Moreover, recognizing that logic is primarily concerned with distinguishing good rea-
soning from bad reasoning may lessen some of the anxiety you have with learning this
new material. It should soon become clear that you already engage in the kind of rea-
soning that you will learn in this textbook all the time. Studying logic will just make
explicit the rules of inference (reasoning) that are already a part of your everyday life.
For example, consider the kinds of inferences you made today just to arrive at class on
time: Last night, you may have set your alarm clock to wake you up in the morning. You
may have reasoned, “If I want to arrive at class on time, I need to get up by 8:00 a.m. I do
want to arrive at class on time, so I will set my alarm for 8:00 a.m.” That is a basic form
xxii
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of reasoning that logicians call modus ponens. We will study this particular rule of infer-
ence and many others in later chapters of the book. While calling it modus ponens and
representing it symbolically may seem intimidating at first, remember that you already
know and understand how to make this inference and you do it all the time.
To the point, if you didn’t understand this rule already or couldn’t draw the correct
conclusion, you would likely not be alive. That is, you would have walked off a cliff
or strolled in front of a speeding car or succumbed to some other tragedy. But, you
stop walking when you get to the edge of a cliff, you pause at a red light and look both
ways before crossing the street, and you do many other such things because you real-
ize the importance of making inferences that are necessary to preserve your life. You
are “doing logic”!
Whatever your college major or career plans, a strong foundation in making good
inferences (doing logic) will improve your performance. If you are interested in sci-
ence—designing an experiment, testing hypotheses, drawing warranted conclusions
from the evidence, all of these involve making basic logical inferences. If you are in-
terested in business, economics, or finance, making sound financial decisions requires
knowing how to make correct inferences. If you are interested in marketing, you will
do well to understand the kinds of tactics that convince people to purchase the prod-
ucts you are trying to promote. Sometimes this will involve asking them to make good
inferences; for example, if you are marketing products or medications that claim to
improve their lives.
If you are interested in computer science, you will quickly realize how necessary logic is
to computer programing. In fact, the first person to invent a computer was a logician and
mathematician! All the technology we have come to rely on as a part of our daily lives—
our mobile phones, our iPads, our computers, and so on—are made possible by logic.
If you are interested in the humanities, philosophy, literature, the arts, or history, you too
rely on logic as a fundamental part of your engagement with these subjects. There is a
reason that logic is taught in philosophy departments, and that is because philosophers
make and evaluate arguments across a wide range of subjects, including what gives value
and meaning to life, whether it is rational to believe in a God, and what counts as having
knowledge as opposed to mere belief or opinion on these and other topics. If you study
literature, engaging with a text critically means evaluating its coherence, its development
of characters and their motivations, and many other things, almost all of which involve
W H Y S T U DY L O G I C ? xxiii
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logic. In short, logic teaches and improves the kinds of knowledge and basic skills that
are relevant to almost everything you do or want to study.
Finally, it’s worth saying that logic can also be fun! Undertaking any new form of study
can, of course, prove frustrating and challenging at times, but with patience and hard
work the material gets easier and clearer. We think you will find that mastering some of
these skills is rewarding in itself, and once you become good at it, you will see just how
much fun it can be to identify a fallacy, point out someone else’s poor argument, and
even construct a proof.
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1 Basic Concepts
1.1 Arguments, Premises, and Conclusions
1.2 Recognizing Arguments
1.3 Deduction and Induction
1.4 Validity, Truth, Soundness, Strength, Cogency
1.5 Argument Forms: Proving Invalidity
1.6 Extended Arguments
Logic may be defined as the organized body of knowledge, or science, that evalu-
ates arguments. All of us encounter arguments in our day-to-day experience. We
read them in books and newspapers, hear them on television, and formulate them
when communicating with friends and associates. The aim of logic is to develop a
system of methods and principles that we may use as criteria for evaluating the ar-
guments of others and as guides in constructing arguments of our own. Among the
benefits to be expected from the study of logic is an increase in confidence that we
are making sense when we criticize the arguments of others and when we advance
arguments of our own.
Read, study, reflect, and prepare for exams online, anytime, anywhere.
1
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An argument, in its simplest form, is a group of statements, one or more of which
1 (the premises) are claimed to provide support for, or reasons to believe, one of the others
(the conclusion). Every argument may be placed in either of two basic groups: those in
which the premises really do support the conclusion and those in which they do not,
even though they are claimed to. The former are said to be good arguments (at least to
that extent), the latter bad arguments. The purpose of logic, as the science that evaluates
arguments, is thus to develop methods and techniques that allow us to distinguish good
arguments from bad.
As is apparent from the given definition, the term argument has a very specific
meaning in logic. It does not mean, for example, a mere verbal fight, as one might
have with one’s parent, spouse, or friend. Let us examine the features of this definition
in greater detail. First of all, an argument is a group of statements. A statement is a
sentence that is either true or false—in other words, typically a declarative sentence
or a sentence component that could stand as a declarative sentence. The following
sentences are statements:
Chocolate truffles are loaded with calories.
Melatonin helps relieve jet lag.
Political candidates always tell the complete truth.
No wives ever cheat on their husbands.
Tiger Woods plays golf and Maria Sharapova plays tennis.
The first two statements are true, the second two false. The last one expresses two state-
ments, both of which are true. Truth and falsity are called the two possible truth values
of a statement. Thus, the truth value of the first two statements is true, the truth value
of the second two is false, and the truth value of the last statement, as well as that of its
components, is true.
Unlike statements, many sentences cannot be said to be either true or false. Ques-
tions, proposals, suggestions, commands, and exclamations usually cannot, and so are
not usually classified as statements. The following sentences are not statements:
Where is Khartoum? (question)
Let’s go to a movie tonight. (proposal)
I suggest you get contact lenses. (suggestion)
Turn off the TV right now. (command)
Fantastic! (exclamation)
The statements that make up an argument are divided into one or more premises
and exactly one conclusion. The premises are the statements that set forth the reasons
or evidence, and the conclusion is the statement that the evidence is claimed to support
or imply. In other words, the conclusion is the statement that is claimed to follow from
the premises. Here is an example of an argument:
All film stars are celebrities.
Halle Berry is a film star.
Therefore, Halle Berry is a celebrity.
The first two statements are the premises; the third is the conclusion. (The claim that the
premises support or imply the conclusion is indicated by the word “therefore.”) In this
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argument the premises really do support the conclusion, and so the argument is a good
one. But consider this argument: 1
Some film stars are men.
Cameron Diaz is a film star.
Therefore, Cameron Diaz is a man.
In this argument the premises do not support the conclusion, even though they are
claimed to, and so the argument is not a good one.
One of the most important tasks in the analysis of arguments is being able to distin-
guish premises from conclusions. If what is thought to be a conclusion is really a prem-
ise, and vice versa, the subsequent analysis cannot possibly be correct. Many arguments
contain indicator words that provide clues in identifying premises and conclusion. Some
typical conclusion indicators are
therefore accordingly entails that
wherefore we may conclude hence
thus it must be that it follows that
consequently for this reason implies that
we may infer so as a result
Whenever a statement follows one of these indicators, it can usually be identified as
the conclusion. By process of elimination the other statements in the argument are the
premises. Example:
Tortured prisoners will say anything just to relieve the pain. Consequently, torture is not
a reliable method of interrogation.
The conclusion of this argument is “Torture is not a reliable method of interrogation,”
and the premise is “Tortured prisoners will say anything just to relieve the pain.”
Premises Claimed
evidence
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statements in which the various components are all claimed to be true will be consid-
ered as separate statements. 1
Passages that contain arguments sometimes contain statements that are neither
premises nor conclusions. Only statements that are actually intended to support the
conclusion should be included in the list of premises. If, for example, a statement serves
merely to introduce the general topic, or merely makes a passing comment, it should not
be taken as part of the argument. Examples:
The claim is often made that malpractice lawsuits drive up the cost of health care. But if
such suits were outlawed or severely restricted, then patients would have no means of
recovery for injuries caused by negligent doctors. Hence, the availability of malpractice
litigation should be maintained intact.
Massive federal deficits push up interest rates for everyone. Servicing the debt
gobbles up a huge portion of the federal budget, which lowers our standard of living.
And big deficits also weaken the value of the dollar. For these reasons, Congress must
make a determined effort to cut overall spending and raise taxes. Politicians who ignore
this reality imperil the future of the nation.
In the first argument, the opening statement serves merely to introduce the topic, so it
is not part of the argument. The premise is the second statement, and the conclusion is
the last statement. In the second argument, the final statement merely makes a passing
comment, so it is not part of the argument. The premises are the first three statements,
and the statement following “for these reasons” is the conclusion.
Closely related to the concepts of argument and statement are those of inference and
proposition. An inference, in the narrow sense of the term, is the reasoning process
expressed by an argument. In the broad sense of the term, “inference” is used inter-
changeably with “argument.” Analogously, a proposition, in the narrow sense, is the
meaning or information content of a statement. For the purposes of this book, however,
“proposition” and “statement” are used interchangeably.
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philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), whose methods of induction are presented
in Chapter 10. 1
Across the Atlantic, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
developed a logic of relations, invented symbolic quantifiers, and suggested the
truth-table method for formulas in propositional logic. These topics are covered in
Chapters 6 and 8 of this book. The truth-table method was completed independently by
Emil Post (1897–1954) and Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951).
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the foundations of modern mathematical
logic were laid by Gottlob Frege (1848–1925). His Begriffsschrift sets forth the theory
of quantification presented in Chapter 8 of this text. Frege’s work was continued
into the twentieth century by Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) and Bertrand
Russell (1872–1970), whose monumental Principia Mathematica attempted to reduce
the whole of pure mathematics to logic. The Principia is the source of much of the sym-
bolism that appears in Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of this text.
During the twentieth century, much of the work in logic focused on the formal-
ization of logical systems and on questions dealing with the completeness and con-
sistency of such systems. A now-famous theorem proved by Kurt Gödel (1906–1978)
states that in any formal system adequate for number theory there exists an unde-
cidable formula—that is, a formula such that neither it nor its negation is derivable
from the axioms of the system. Other developments included multivalued logics and
the formalization of modal logic. Most recently, logic has made a major contribution
to technology by providing the conceptual foundation for the electronic circuitry of
digital computers.
EXERCISE 1.1
I. Each of the following passages contains a single argument. Using the letters “P” and
“C,” identify the premises and conclusion of each argument, writing premises first
and conclusion last. List the premises in the order in which they make the most
sense (usually the order in which they occur), and write both premises and conclu-
sion in the form of separate declarative sentences. Indicator words may be elimi-
nated once premises and conclusion have been appropriately labeled. The exercises
marked with a star are answered in the back of the book.
★1. Carbon monoxide molecules happen to be just the right size and shape, and
happen to have just the right chemical properties, to fit neatly into cavities
within hemoglobin molecules in blood that are normally reserved for oxygen
molecules. Consequently, carbon monoxide diminishes the oxygen-carrying
capacity of blood.
(Nivaldo J. Tro, Chemistry: A Molecular Approach, 2nd ed.)
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that the person can use in place of the unacceptable response that has to
be suppressed. 1
( Walter Mischel and Harriet Mischel, Essentials of Psychology)
11. Profit serves a very crucial function in a free-enterprise economy, such as our
own. High profits are the signal that consumers want more of the output of the
industry. High profits provide the incentive for firms to expand output and for
more firms to enter the industry in the long run. For a firm of above-average
efficiency, profits represent the reward for greater efficiency.
(Dominic Salvatore, Managerial Economics, 3rd ed.)
12. Cats can think circles around dogs! My cat regularly used to close and lock the
door to my neighbor’s doghouse, trapping their sleeping Doberman inside. Try
telling a cat what to do, or putting a leash on him—he’ll glare at you and say, “I
don’t think so. You should have gotten a dog.”
(Kevin Purkiser, letter to the editor)
★13. Since private property helps people define themselves, since it frees people
from mundane cares of daily subsistence, and since it is finite, no individual
should accumulate so much property that others are prevented from accumu-
lating the necessities of life.
(Leon P. Baradat, Political Ideologies, Their Origins and Impact)
14. To every existing thing God wills some good. Hence, since to love any thing is
nothing else than to will good to that thing, it is manifest that God loves every-
thing that exists.
( Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica)
15. Women of the working class, especially wage workers, should not have more
than two children at most. The average working man can support no more and
the average working woman can take care of no more in decent fashion.
(Margaret Sanger, Family Limitations)
★16. Radioactive fallout isn’t the only concern in the aftermath of nuclear explo-
sions. The nations of planet Earth have acquired nuclear weapons with an ex-
plosive power equal to more than a million Hiroshima bombs. Studies suggest
that explosion of only half these weapons would produce enough soot, smoke,
and dust to blanket the earth, block out the sun, and bring on a nuclear winter
that would threaten the survival of the human race.
( John W. Hill and Doris K. Kolb, Chemistry for Changing Times, 7th ed.)
17. An ant releases a chemical when it dies, and its fellows then carry it away to the com-
post heap. Apparently the communication is highly effective; a healthy ant painted
with the death chemical will be dragged to the funeral heap again and again.
(Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember, Cultural Anthropology, 7th ed.)
18. Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought
to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to
be that at which all things aim.
(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics)
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.