English mathematician, philosopher and logician (1815–1864)
"Boole" redirects here. For other uses, see Boole (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with George Boolos.
George Boole
Boole, c. 1860
Born
(1815-11-02)2 November 1815
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England
Died
8 December 1864(1864-12-08) (aged 49)
Ballintemple, Cork, Ireland
Education
Bainbridge's Commercial Academy[3]
Spouse
Mary Everest Boole
Era
19th-century philosophy
Region
Western philosophy
School
British algebraic logic[1]
Institutions
Lincoln Mechanics' Institute[2] Free School Lane, Lincoln University College Cork
Main interests
Mathematics, logic, philosophy of mathematics
Notable ideas
Abstract algebraic logic Boolean algebra Boolean function Boolean polynomials Boolean ring Boole's expansion theorem Boole's inequality Boole's rule Boole's syllogistic Boole–Fréchet inequalities Euler–Boole summation Imprecise probability Invariant theory Wholistic reference
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George BooleJnr (/buːl/; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher, and logician, most of whose short career was spent as the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork in Ireland. He worked in the fields of differential equations and algebraic logic, and is best known as the author of The Laws of Thought (1854) which contains Boolean algebra. Boolean logic is credited with laying the foundations for the Information Age alongside the work of Claude Shannon.[4][5][6]
Boole was the son of a shoemaker. He received a primary school education and learned Latin and modern languages through various means. At 16, he began teaching to support his family. He established his own school at 19 and later ran a boarding school in Lincoln. Boole was an active member of local societies and collaborated with fellow mathematicians.
In 1849, Boole was appointed the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork (now University College Cork) in Ireland, where he met his future wife, Mary Everest. He continued his involvement in social causes and maintained connections with Lincoln. In 1864, Boole died due to fever-induced pleural effusion after developing pneumonia.
Boole published around 50 articles and several separate publications in his lifetime. Some of his key works include a paper on early invariant theory and "The Mathematical Analysis of Logic," which introduced symbolic logic. Boole also wrote two systematic treatises: "Treatise on Differential Equations" and "Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences." He contributed to the theory of linear differential equations and the study of the sum of residues of a rational function. In 1847, Boole developed Boolean algebra, a fundamental concept in binary logic, which laid the groundwork for the algebra of logic tradition and forms the foundation of digital circuit design and modern computer science. Boole also attempted to discover a general method in probabilities, focusing on determining the consequent probability of events logically connected to given probabilities. His work was expanded upon by various scholars, such as Charles Sanders Peirce and William Stanley Jevons. Boole's ideas later gained practical applications when Claude Shannon and Victor Shestakov employed Boolean algebra to optimize the design of electromechanical relay systems, leading to the development of modern electronic digital computers. University College Cork celebrated the 200th anniversary of Boole's birth in 2015, highlighting his significant impact on the digital age.
Boole's contributions to mathematics earned him various honors, including the Royal Society's first gold prize for mathematics, the Keith Medal, and honorary degrees from the Universities of Dublin and Oxford.
^Ivor Grattan-Guinness (ed.), Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences, Routledge, 2002, ch. 5.1.
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^Nahin, Paul J. (2012). The Logician and the Engineer: How George Boole and Claude Shannon Created the Information Age. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691176000. JSTOR j.cttq957s.
^Mulcahy, Colm (1 November 2015). "The Bicentennial of George Boole, the Man Who Laid the Foundations of the Digital Age". Scientific American Blog Network. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
GeorgeBoole Jnr (/buːl/; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher, and logician, most of whose...
Philosophy and Fun of Algebra, and as the wife of fellow mathematician GeorgeBoole. Her progressive ideas on education, as expounded in The Preparation...
became acquainted with Indian thought according to his niece Mary Boole: My uncle, George Everest, was sent to India in 1806 at the age of sixteen. [...]...
Logic and Probabilities by GeorgeBoole, published in 1854, is the second of Boole's two monographs on algebraic logic. Boole was a professor of mathematics...
by GeorgeBoole (1854) on page 42 of his Laws of Thought. Boole's definition is quoted below. The concept, probably discovered independently by Boole in...
Alicia Boole was born in Cork, Ireland, the third of five daughters of English parents: mathematician and logician GeorgeBoole and Mary Everest Boole, a...
kind of logic, function, expression, or theory based on the work of GeorgeBoole is considered Boolean. Related to this, "Boolean" may refer to: Boolean...
Lilian Boole was born on 11 May 1864, at Lichfield Cottage, Blackrock, Ballintemple, Cork, the youngest daughter of English parents, mathematician George Boole...
Who Knew Infinity MacHale, Desmond (1995). "GeorgeBoole and Sherlock Holmes". The Legacy of GeorgeBoole. Cork, Ireland. Lynch, Peter (15 November 2018)...
Ross) More than two millennia later, GeorgeBoole alluded to the very same principle as did Aristotle when Boole made the following observation with respect...
(Visitors' Centre) and an extension to the Boole Library – named for the first professor of mathematics at UCC, GeorgeBoole, who developed the algebra that would...
founding the field of artificial intelligence. He is credited alongside GeorgeBoole for laying the foundations of the Information Age. As a 21-year-old master's...
Torches, by the report of Muskets, and any instruments of like nature". GeorgeBoole published a paper in 1847 called 'The Mathematical Analysis of Logic'...
"function" is not explicit, but at least in the work of De Morgan and GeorgeBoole it is implied: we see abstraction of the argument forms, the introduction...
symbols may also be seen: + {\displaystyle +} was used by GeorgeBoole in 1847. Although Boole used + {\displaystyle +} mainly on classes, he also considered...
the two truth values of logic and Boolean algebra. It is named after GeorgeBoole, who first defined an algebraic system of logic in the mid 19th century...
algebra describes numerical operations. Boolean algebra was introduced by GeorgeBoole in his first book The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847), and set...
works of logicians and mathematicians GeorgeBoole, William Stanley Jevons and Ernst Schröder (known as Boole–Jevons–Schröder–Poretsky method). He discovered...
would be followed closely by his successors such as Gottlob Frege and GeorgeBoole in forming modern symbolic logic. Leibniz was first introduced to the...
Cambridge Companion to Aristotle. p. 41. Copleston's A History of Philosophy GeorgeBoole. 1854/2003. The Laws of Thought, facsimile of 1854 edition, with an introduction...
Que Publishing, p. 45, ISBN 9780789728616. The Calculus of Logic, by GeorgeBoole, Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal Vol. III (1848), pp. 183–98...
been explicitly stated by Frege, and arguably it was already assumed by GeorgeBoole decades before Frege's work. The principle of compositionality is highly...
Ireland. He is an author and speaker on several subjects, including GeorgeBoole, lateral thinking puzzles, and humour. He has published over 80 books...
been studied as abstract self-standing mathematical objects in works by GeorgeBoole (1860), L. M. Milne-Thomson (1933), and Károly Jordan [de] (1939). Finite...
British and Irish mathematicians including Charles James Hargreave, GeorgeBoole, Bownin, Carmichael, Doukin, Graves, Murphy, William Spottiswoode and...
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