Luis M. Laita, Luis de Ledesma,
Eugenio Roanes-Lozano, Aurora Purez
Univ. Complutense de Madrid, Spain
eroanes@eucmos.sim.ucm.es, ledesma@fi.upm.es
Abstract
Boole's logic was not a Boolean algebra as we define this structure today. Boolean algebras were introduced later by Jevons, Peirce and others. Despite the fact that their works were based on ideas suggested by Boole, Boole's logic was something different. It was an outcome of a general methodology known in his time as the "Method of separation of symbols".
His inference procedures were not the ones used in modern logic either. They were based on techniques as far from today's logic procedures as MacLaurin series expansions.
In this article we present first a short historical review of the genesis of Boole's logic. A reformulation and a generalization of his inference procedures, using techniques provided by Computer Algebra is detailed afterwards.