Description
Book SynopsisSelf-taught mathematician and father of Boolean algebra, George Boole (1815â1864) published An Investigation of the Laws of Thought in 1854. In this highly original investigation of the fundamental laws of human reasoning, a sequel to ideas he had explored in earlier writings, Boole uses the symbolic language of mathematics to establish a method to examine the nature of the human mind using logic and the theory of probabilities. Boole considers language not just as a mode of expression, but as a system one can use to understand the human mind. In the first 12 chapters, he sets down the rules necessary to represent logic in this unique way. Then he analyses a variety of arguments and propositions of various writers from Aristotle to Spinoza. One of history's most insightful mathematicians, Boole is compelling reading for today's student of intellectual history and the science of the mind.
Table of Contents1. Nature and design of this work; 2. Signs and their laws; 3. Derivation of the laws; 4. Division of propositions; 5. Principles of symbolic reasoning; 6. Of interpretation; 7. Of elimination; 8. Of reduction; 9. Methods of abbreviation; 10. Conditions of a perfect method; 11. Of secondary propositions; 12. Methods in secondary propositions; 13. Clarke and Spinoza; 14. Examples of analysis; 15. Of the Aristotelian logic; 16. Of the theory of probabilities; 17. General method in probabilities; 18. Elementary illustrations; 19. Of statistical conditions; 20. Problems on causes; 21. Probability of judgements; 22. Constitution of the intellect.
