Abstract
George Boole’s theory of logic has not fared well at the hands of the commentators who have written about it, whether they be his successors in logic itself, or historians of the subject. While there is general agreement that his work occupies an important place in the history of logic, the exact nature of that importance remains elusive. On the one hand, he has been called the originator of mathematical logic,1 but on the other, that claim has been pointedly disputed.2 On the one hand, his logic does differ significantly from traditional syllogistic logic, and for this he has been applauded.3 But on the other, Frege’s introduction of quantification theory forms such a complete barrier between paleo- and neologic that any lasting influence from Boole’s work, if it is there at all, seems permanently obscured.
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References
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Evra, J.W.V. (2000). A Reassessment of George Boole’s Theory of Logic. In: Gasser, J. (eds) A Boole Anthology. Synthese Library, vol 291. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9385-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9385-4_6
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