文档介绍：Project Gutenberg’s An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, by e Boole
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at
Title: An Investigation of the Laws of Thought
Author: e Boole
Release Date: February 16, 2005 [EBook #15114]
Language: English
Character set encoding: PDF
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAWS OF THOUGHT ***
Produced by David Starner, Joshua Hutchinson, David Bowden
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
i
AN INVESTIGATION
OF
THE LAWS OF THOUGHT,
ON WHICH ARE FOUNDED
THE MATHEMATICAL THEORIES OF LOGIC AND
PROBABILITIES.
BY
E BOOLE, LL. D.
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN QUEEN’S COLLEGE, CORK.
ii
TO
JOHN RYALL, .
VICE-PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF GREEK
IN QUEEN’S COLLEGE, CORK,
THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED
IN TESTIMONY OF FRIENDSHIP AND ESTEEM
PREFACE.
——
The following work is not a republication of a former treatise by the Author,
entitled, “The Mathematical Analysis of Logic.” Its earlier portion is indeed
devoted to the same object, and it begins by establishing the same system of
fundamental laws, but its methods are more general, and its range of applica-
tions far wider. It exhibits the results, matured by some years of study and
reflection, of a principle of investigation relating to the intellectual operations,
the previous exposition of which was written within a few weeks after its idea
had been conceived.
That portion of this work which relates to Logic presupposes in its reader a
knowledge of the most important terms of the science, as usually treated, and
of its general object. On these points there is no better guide than Archbishop
Whately’s “Elements of Logic,” or Mr. Thomson’s “Outlines of the Laws of
Thought.” To the former of these treatises, the present revival of attention to
this c