BOOLE, George (1815-1864). The mathematical analysis of logic, being an essay towards a calculus of deductive reasoning. Cambridge: Macmillan, Barclay & Macmillan, 1847.

First edition of Boole's innovative work on logic, distinguished from the logics that preceded it because it derives its theorems, not from ordinary language (e.g, the Aristotelian syllogism), but from a purely formal system. Bertrand Russell viewed this work as the greatest discovery of the nineteenth century, namely the nature of pure mathematics. Objecting to the then-current view of mathematics as the science of magnitude or number, Boole adopted a far more general view: 'We might justly assign it as the definitive character of a true Calculus, that it is a method resting upon the employment of Symbols, whose laws of combination are known and general, and whose results admit of a consistent interpretation ... It is upon the foundation of this general principle, that I propose to establish the Calculus of Logic, and that I claim for it a place among the acknowledged forms of mathematical analysis' (p.4). Boole further developed these ideas in his An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), which contained the first proper presentation of Boolean algebra. Its practical application is now universal in the design of electronics and computing. OOC 223.

Octavo (219 x 130mm). 6-line errata slip bound in. Modern maroon library cloth.

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