Combines exemplary clarity and precision with an unusual vividness and originality in style which actually make the study of the work a fascinating adventure—no small achievement in the reputedly dullest and most barren field of scientific research.

A masterpiece of clarity and analysis, setting forth at once briefly and comprehensively an introduction to formal logic that few can match.

It will serve the purpose of inculcating, by precept and example, standards of clarity and precision which are, even in formal logic, more often pursued than achieved. Viewed as a whole, the system of logic explained in this book comes nearer than any previous attempt to conforming with the regulative ideals of the mathematical logician… This advance in unification and deductive elegance is not achieved at the expense of rigour; while the striking nature of the gain in the conciseness of the whole may be verified by any reader who will compare the length of this book with that of the corresponding sections in Principia… Every section of this book provides evidence of rare skill, both in research and communication; it deserves to be read and read again by all who have a serious interest in mathematical logic.

For Quine, of course, the territory of logic seems but an extension of his own back yard, so assuredly does he walk there where others tread only with brainracking caution. And as he is both master innovator and master explicator, with a masterful prose style to boot, any work of his is a painless necessity.