An Investigation of the Laws of Thought

This groundbreaking work on logic by the brilliant nineteenth-century English mathematician George Boole (1815-1864) remains influential to this day. Boole's major contribution was to demonstrate conclusively that the symbolic expressions of algebra could be adapted to convey the fundamental principles and operations of logic, which hitherto had been expressed only in words. Boole was thus the founder of today's science of symbolic logic.

At his untimely death at the age of forty-nine, Boole could never have guessed that his new symbolic logic would become essential in the next century for telephone switching and the design of computers. For this practical reason, as well as the sheer intellectual importance of his accomplishment, THE LAWS OF THOUGHT merits our thoughtful attention today.