41 Facts About Boole

George Boole was a largely self-taught English mathematician, philosopher, and logician, most of whose short career was spent as the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Cork in Ireland.

Boole was born in 1815 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, the son of John Boole senior, a shoemaker and Mary Ann Joyce.

Boole had a primary school education, and received lessons from his father, but due to a serious decline in business, he had little further formal and academic teaching.

At age 16, Boole became the breadwinner for his parents and three younger siblings, taking up a junior teaching position in Doncaster at Heigham's School.

Boole participated in the Lincoln Mechanics' Institute, in the Greyfriars, Lincoln, which was founded in 1833.

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At age 19, Boole successfully established his own school in Lincoln: Free School Lane.

Boole immediately became involved in the Lincoln Topographical Society, serving as a member of the committee, and presenting a paper entitled "On the origin, progress, and tendencies of polytheism", especially amongst the ancient Egyptians and Persians, and in modern India.

Boole became a prominent local figure, an admirer of John Kaye, the bishop.

Boole associated with the Chartist Thomas Cooper, whose wife was a relation.

From 1838 onwards, Boole was making contacts with sympathetic British academic mathematicians and reading more widely.

Boole studied algebra in the form of symbolic methods, as far as these were understood at the time, and began to publish research papers.

Boole met his future wife, Mary Everest, there in 1850 while she was visiting her uncle John Ryall who was professor of Greek.

Boole was awarded the Keith Medal by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1855 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1857.

Boole's works are in about 50 articles and a few separate publications.

In 1841, Boole published an influential paper in early invariant theory.

Boole received a medal from the Royal Society for his memoir of 1844, "On a General Method in Analysis".

In 1847, Boole published The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, the first of his works on symbolic logic.

Boole completed two systematic treatises on mathematical subjects during his lifetime.

In 1857, Boole published the treatise "On the Comparison of Transcendent, with Certain Applications to the Theory of Definite Integrals", in which he studied the sum of residues of a rational function.

In 1847, Boole published the pamphlet Mathematical Analysis of Logic.

Boole later regarded it as a flawed exposition of his logical system and wanted An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on Which are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities to be seen as the mature statement of his views.

Contrary to widespread belief, Boole never intended to criticise or disagree with the main principles of Aristotle's logic.

Boole's approach was ultimately much further reaching than either sides' in the controversy.

Boole conceived of "elective symbols" of his kind as an algebraic structure.

Boole's work was a beginning to the algebra of sets, again not a concept available to Boole as a familiar model.

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Boole's pioneering efforts encountered specific difficulties, and the treatment of addition was an obvious difficulty in the early days.

Boole replaced the operation of multiplication by the word "and" and addition by the word "or".

Boole argued against the result 0, which is correct for exclusive or, because he saw the equation x + x = 0 as implying x = 0, a false analogy with ordinary algebra.

In late November 1864, Boole walked, in heavy rain, from his home at Lichfield Cottage in Ballintemple to the university, a distance of three miles, and lectured wearing his wet clothes.

Boole's condition worsened and on 8 December 1864, he died of fever-induced pleural effusion.

Boole was buried in the Church of Ireland cemetery of St Michael's, Church Road, Blackrock .

Boole's work was extended and refined by a number of writers, beginning with William Stanley Jevons.

Keynes believed that Boole had made a fundamental error in his definition of independence which vitiated much of his analysis.

Theodore Hailperin showed much earlier that Boole had used the correct mathematical definition of independence in his worked out problems.

Boole's views were given in four published addresses: The Genius of Sir Isaac Newton; The Right Use of Leisure; The Claims of Science; and The Social Aspect of Intellectual Culture.

Boole considered converting to Judaism but in the end was said to have chosen Unitarianism.

Boole came to speak against what he saw as "prideful" scepticism, and instead favoured the belief in a "Supreme Intelligent Cause".

Two influences on Boole were later claimed by his wife, Mary Everest Boole: a universal mysticism tempered by Jewish thought, and Indian logic.

Mary Boole stated that an adolescent mystical experience provided for his life's work:.

Boole was apparently disconcerted at the book's reception just as a mathematical toolset:.

In 1855, Boole married Mary Everest, who later wrote several educational works on her husband's principles.