乔治·布尔

乔治·布尔（英语：George Boole，1815年11月2日—1864年12月8日，英格兰数学家、逻辑学家，数理逻辑学先驱。

生平

乔治·布尔生于英格兰的林肯郡。

在备课的时候，布尔不满意当时的数学课本，便决定阅读伟大数学家的论文。在阅读法国数学家拉格朗日的论文时，布尔有了变分法方面的新发现。变分法是数学分析的分支，它处理的是寻求优化某些参数的曲线和曲面。

1847年，布尔出版了《逻辑的数学分析》（The Mathematical Analysis of Logic），这是他对符号逻辑诸多贡献中的第一次。

1849年，他被任命位于爱尔兰科克市的皇后学院（今科克大学）的数学教授。1854年，他出版了《思维规律研究》，这是他最著名的著作。在这本书中布尔介绍了现在以他的名字命名的布尔代数。布尔撰写了微分方程和差分方程的课本，这些课本在英国一直使用到19世纪末。

1855年，布尔与女权主义哲学家玛丽·埃佛勒斯结婚，她是乔治·埃佛勒斯的侄女。两人育有五个女儿，其中最幼者是艾捷尔·丽莲·伏尼契。

由于其在符号逻辑运算中的特殊贡献，很多计算机语言中将逻辑运算称为布尔运算，将其结果称为布尔值。

1864年，布尔冒着大雨步行两英里走到讲台，身着打湿的衣服为学生们授课。不久后，他就病倒了，得了重度感冒还发高烧。其妻错误地相信顺势疗法（即疾患须用致病因子施救），因为布尔是淋雨水而感冒的，妻子便用桶装水淋到他身上，不料湿气进一步加剧了他的病情。1864年12月8日，布尔死于支气管肺炎所致的胸腔积液。

布尔葬于科克市市郊黑石(BlackrockHe)地区的“圣迈克尔爱尔兰教堂墓地”(Ireland cemetery of St Michael's)。墓地旁紧邻的教堂内为他设有一块纪念匾。

2015年11月2日，Google更改其首页的标志以纪念乔治·布尔200岁冥诞。

George Boole ( BOOL; 2 November 1815 – 8 December 1864) was an English mathematician and philosopher often credited with revolutionizing logic by transforming it from a philosophical study of language into a mathematical system of algebraic equations using binary values and logical operators.

Boole was the son of a shoemaker. He received a primary school education and learned Latin and modern languages through various means. At 16, he began teaching to support his family. He established his own school at 19 and later ran a boarding school in Lincoln. Boole was an active member of local societies and collaborated with fellow mathematicians. In 1849, he was appointed the first professor of mathematics at Queen’s College, Cork (now University College Cork) in Ireland, where he worked predominantly in the fields of differential equations and algebraic logic. He continued his involvement in social causes and maintained connections with Lincoln. In 1864, Boole died due to fever-induced pleural effusion after developing pneumonia.

Boole published around 50 articles and several separate publications in his lifetime. Some of his key works include a paper on early invariant theory and "The Mathematical Analysis of Logic", which introduced symbolic logic. Boole also wrote two systematic treatises: "Treatise on Differential Equations" and "Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences". He contributed to the theory of linear differential equations and the study of the sum of residues of a rational function. In 1847, Boole developed Boolean algebra, a fundamental concept in binary logic, which laid the groundwork for the algebra of logic tradition and forms the foundation of digital circuit design and modern computer science. Boole also attempted to discover a general method in probabilities, focusing on determining the consequent probability of events logically connected to given probabilities. He is best known as the author of The Laws of Thought (1854), which contains Boolean algebra. Boolean logic, essential to computer programming, is credited with helping to lay the foundations for the Information Age.

Boole's work was expanded upon by various scholars, such as Charles Sanders Peirce and William Stanley Jevons. Boole's ideas later gained practical applications when Claude Shannon and Victor Shestakov employed Boolean algebra to optimize the design of electromechanical relay systems, leading to the development of modern electronic digital computers. His contributions to mathematics earned him various honours, including the Royal Society's first gold prize for mathematics, the Keith Medal, and honorary degrees from the Universities of Dublin and Oxford. University College Cork celebrated the 200th anniversary of Boole's birth in 2015, highlighting his significant impact on the digital age.

Early life

Boole was born in 1815 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, the son of John Boole Snr (1779–1848), a shoemaker and Mary Ann Joyce. He 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. William Brooke, a bookseller in Lincoln, may have helped him with Latin, which he may also have learned at the school of Thomas Bainbridge. He was self-taught in modern languages. In fact, when a local newspaper printed his translation of a Latin poem, a scholar accused him of plagiarism under the pretence that he was not capable of such achievements. 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. He taught briefly in Liverpool.