Boole's Logic and Probability

A Critical Exposition from the Standpoint of Contemporary Algebra, Logic and Probability Theory

T. Hailperin

• Publisher: North Holland
• Year: 1986
• Print ISBN: 9780444879523
• eBook ISBN: 9780080880051
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Mathematics
• Subtopic: Mathematics General
• Index: Mathematics

Since the publication of the first edition in 1976, there has been a notable increase of interest in the development of logic. This is evidenced by the several conferences on the history of logic, by a journal devoted to the subject, and by an accumulation of new results. This increased activity and the new results - the chief one being that Boole's work in probability is best viewed as a probability logic - were influential circumstances conducive to a new edition.Chapter 1, presenting Boole's ideas on a mathematical treatment of logic, from their emergence in his early 1847 work on through to his immediate successors, has been considerably enlarged. Chapter 2 includes additional discussion of the ``uninterpretable'' notion, both semantically and syntactically. Chapter 3 now includes a revival of Boole's abandoned propositional logic and, also, a discussion of his hitherto unnoticed brush with ancient formal logic. Chapter 5 has an improved explanation of why Boole's probability method works. Chapter 6, Applications and Probability Logic, is a new addition. Changes from the first edition have brought about a three-fold increase in the bibliography.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Boole's Logic and Probability
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface to the First Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Introduction
• Chapter 0. Requisites From Algebra, Logic and Probability
• PART I . LOGIC
• PART II. PROBABILITY
• Bibliography
• Index