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English mathematician who was the author of several classic works on mathematical logic.  As a child, he
taught himself Latin and Greek in the belief it would enable him to rise above his wretched lower-class existence. He
spent four years teaching at elementary schools, at which time he studied Mécanique Céleste and Mécanique
Analytique on his own. Following this, he discovered the usefulness of invariants.
His most important work was in the separation of symbols from operations and creation of mathematical
logic. In the works The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and Investigation of the Laws
of Thought (1854) he established formal logic and Boolean algebra (the algebra of sets). In Treatise
on Differential Equations (1859), he pointed out parallels between differential operators and the rules of algebra.
Bell, E. T. "Complete Independence: Boole." Ch. 23 in
Men of Mathematics: The Lives and Achievements of the Great Mathematicians from Zeno to Poincaré.
New York: Simon and Schuster, pp. 433-447, 1986.
Boole, G. and Moulton, J. F. A Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences, 2nd rev. ed. New York: Dover, 1960.
MacHale, D. George Boole: His Life and Work. Dublin, Ireland: Boole, 1985.
Additional biographies: MacTutor (St. Andrews)
© 1996-2007 Eric W. Weisstein
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