Irving Marmer Copi (né Copilovich or Copilowish; July 28, 1917 – August 19, 2002) was an American philosopher, logician, and university textbook author.

Biography

Copi studied under Bertrand Russell while at the University of Chicago. In 1948 he contributed to the calculus of relations with his article using logical matrices. Copi taught at the University of Illinois, the United States Air Force Academy, Princeton University, and the Georgetown University Logic Institute, before teaching logic at the University of Michigan, 1958–69, and at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1969–90. Assigned to teach logic, Copi reviewed the available textbooks and decided to write his own. His manuscript was split into his Introduction to Logic (1953), and Symbolic Logic (1954). A reviewer noted that it had an "unusually comprehensive chapter on definition" and mentions that "the author accounts for the seductive nature of informal fallacies". The textbooks proved popular, and a reviewer of the third edition noted over 100 new exercises added. Both textbooks are widely used, with the former currently in its 14th edition.

Family

In 1941 Copi married Amelia Glaser. They had four children David, Thomas, William, and Margaret.

Books

Articles