Logic

A yellow piece of metal turns green in vinegar—and suddenly the proof that it is copper is in doubt. What if the vinegar was impure, or gold itself began turning green?

Carveth Read’s Logic: Deductive and Inductive begins with the tests we use every day to decide what is true, then follows them to the edge of what proof can establish. In this late-nineteenth-century guide to reasoning, a simple experiment opens onto questions about evidence, cause, and the assumptions no argument can prove for itself. Read also asks us to distrust the forces that sway belief—fear, habit, vanity, even the pull of the crowd—and to weigh conclusions by the evidence they deserve. If deduction leans on facts and facts lean on principles, where can certainty begin?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.