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Mathematical Treasure: Boole’s Laws of Thought

Author(s): 
Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University)

Perhaps the most influential work of the English mathematician and philosopher George Boole (1815-1864) was his An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, published in 1854. In this book Boole extended Aristotle’s logic and attempted to give it a mathematical foundation.


Boole’s proof for the existence of a prime mover or an "intelligent self-existent being" that is the cause of all motion in the universe follows.


This material was obtained through the courtesy of the Peabody Library of Johns Hopkins University.

Index to Mathematical Treasures

Frank J. Swetz (The Pennsylvania State University), "Mathematical Treasure: Boole’s Laws of Thought," Convergence (July 2016)