Introduction

This introductory chapter considers the work of mathematician George Boole (1815–1864), whose book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854) would have a huge impact on humanity. Boole's mathematics, the basis for what is now called Boolean algebra, is the subject of this book. It is also called mathematical logic, and today it is a routine analytical tool of the logic-design engineers who create the electronic circuitry that we now cannot live without, from computers to automobiles to home appliances.

Boolean algebra is not traditional or classical Aristotelian logic, a subject generally taught in college by the philosophy department. Boolean algebra, by contrast, is generally in the hands of electrical engineering professors and/or the mathematics faculty.