George Boole was an English mathematician, philosopher and logician. He worked in the fields of differential equations and algebraic logic, and is now best known as the author of The Laws of Thought. As the inventor of the prototype of what is now called Boolean logic, which became the basis of the modern digital computer, Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. Boole said,

"... no general method for the solution of questions in the theory of probabilities can be established which does not explicitly recognise ... those universal laws of thought which are the basis of all reasoning ..."

George Boole's father, John Boole (1779–1848), was a tradesman in Lincoln and gave him lessons. He had an elementary school education, but 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. 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.

Boole participated in the local Mechanics Institute, the Lincoln Mechanics' Institution, which was founded in 1833. Edward Bromhead, who knew John Boole through the Institution, helped George Boole with mathematics books; and he was given the calculus text of Sylvestre François Lacroix by Rev. George Stevens Dickson, of St Swithin Lincoln. Without a teacher, it took him many years to master calculus.
 

Boole had no academic training , but to his 16 years was already an assistant professor started teaching in order to help his parents , although he earned was very little . Teaching for four years in elementary schools . From then sought to evaluate the professions that you were offered good prospects : the military career was beyond his reach , for its financial condition , the law would require resources above your budget availability , a Boole leaving only the church deciding to become a priest. Although Boole failed to materialize the idea of ​​being a priest , the four years that he has prepared for an ecclesiastical career were not lost. Learned French , German and Italian , which would be of fundamental importance in the future . In 1835 he opened his own school and changed his interest , going to focus their studies in mathematics .The first mathematical work of George Boole was based on studies of Laplace and Lagrange being encouraged by Duncan Gregory who was in Cambridge . Boole can not accept the advice of Duncan to attend courses in Cambridge since had to take care of his parents , but he started making posts at the newly founded Cambridge Mathematical Journal . Also influenced by Duncan began studying algebra.Received a medal from the Royal Society for publication in Trasactions of the Royal Society on the algebraic to the solution of differential equations methods and thereafter his work began to be known and disclosed in academia. He became a friend of De Morgan and became interested in a controversy about the mathematical logic that Scottish philosopher Sir . William Hamilton (1788-1856) was initiated by De Morgan . The result was that in 1847 Boole published his work called The Logic Mathematical Analysis , a small book that marked the epoch.

In 1849 gained the chair of mathematics at Queens College in Cork , where he spent the rest of his life teaching . It was a very dedicated teacher . A great philosopher and one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century.

 

Boole had many works published throughout his academic career coming to be exalted by Bertrand Russell who said that the greatest discovery of the XIX century was the nature of pure mathematics . Adds to this assertion the words " Pure mathematics was discovered by Boole in a work which he called The Laws of Thought " . This assertion Russell refers to the best known work of Boole An investigation into the Laws of Thought on which defined the mathematical theories of logic and probability while establishing formal logic and a new algebra . Boole saw the logic in a new way and came to a simple algebra.

He made ​​an analogy between algebraic symbols and those representing the logic . And that marked the beginning of algebra of logic called Boolean Algebra , published in 1854 . Boole has written in the years 1859 a treaty on Differential Equations , in 1860 a treatise on Finite Difference Calculus , plus more than 50 papers on the basic properties of numbers .Boole in his work was recognized as a genius .

He received the Universities of Dublin and Oxford and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1857 . But Boole had a very short career , it started late and ended with his death at age 49 . Work , studies and research Boole were extremely important to the evolution of computers being used in applications Boolean Algebra in the structure of modern computers and the phone calls until the present day.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 

http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/archive/fulltext/LandC_32_1_Cooksey.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Boole

http://132.187.98.10:8080/encyclopedia/en/booleGeorge.pdf