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Lot 145

BOOLE (GEORGE)
The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, being an Essay Towards a Calculus of Deductive Reasoning

19 June 2013, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

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BOOLE (GEORGE)

The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, being an Essay Towards a Calculus of Deductive Reasoning, first edition, ownership inscription in pencil of R.B. Braithwaite, "ex dono Joseph Ashley Gillett", and with a loosely inserted letter gifting this and the following lot to Professor Timothy Smiley in 1988, twentieth century red cloth, gilt lettered spine (faded), 8vo, Cambridge, Macmillan, Barclay & Macmillan, 1847

Footnotes

SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF BOOLE'S FIRST WORK ON SYMBOLIC LOGIC. Expanding on Leibniz' earlier speculations on the correlation between logic and mathematics, Boole argued that logic was principally a discipline of mathematics, rather than philosophy. The work won him not only the admiration of the distinguished logician Augustus de Morgan, but also a place on the faculty of Ireland's Queen's College. An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (see following lot) "is today recognized as the more authoritative and substantial book, but at the time it gained even less attention than had his Analysis" (ODNB).

Provenance: Joseph Ashley Gillet; R.B. Braithwaite (1900-1999, philosopher, the man whose poker Wittgenstein reportedly brandished at Karl Popper during their confrontation at a Moral Sciences Club meeting in Braithwaite's rooms in King's College, Cambridge); Professor Timothy Smiley.

In the letter included with the lot, Braithwaite gives further details of the provenance: "This (I suspect very rare) one is his 1847 pamphlet. I discovered this among the books of a cousin of mine (& a partner of my fathers in the county bank in Banbury) & coaxed him to give it to me... I subsequently lent it to John Austin for him to have the modern reprint (?about 1958) made". Also included in the lot is the Newton scholar J. Edleston's copy of Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic by Augustus De Morgan, 1860.

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