History
Algebraic logic is, perhaps, the oldest approach to formal logic, arguably beginning with a number of memoranda Leibniz wrote in the 1680s, some of which were published in the 19th century and translated into English by Clarence Lewis in 1918. But nearly all of Leibniz's known work on algebraic logic was published only in 1903 after Louis Couturat discovered it in Leibniz's Nachlass. Parkinson (1966) and Loemker (1969) translated selections from Couturat's volume into English.
Brady (2000) discusses the rich historical connections between algebraic logic and model theory. The founders of model theory, Ernst Schröder and Leopold Loewenheim, were logicians in the algebraic tradition. Alfred Tarski, the founder of set theoretic model theory as a major branch of contemporary mathematical logic, also:
- Co-discovered Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra;
- Invented cylindric algebra;
- Wrote the 1941 paper that revived relation algebra, which can be viewed as the starting point of abstract algebraic logic.
Modern mathematical logic began in 1847, with two pamphlets whose respective authors were Augustus DeMorgan and George Boole. They, and later C.S. Peirce, Hugh MacColl, Frege, Peano, Bertrand Russell, and A. N. Whitehead all shared Leibniz's dream of combining symbolic logic, mathematics, and philosophy. Relation algebra is arguably the culmination of Leibniz's approach to logic. With the exception of some writings by Leopold Loewenheim and Thoralf Skolem, algebraic logic went into eclipse soon after the 1910-13 publication of Principia Mathematica, not to be revived until Tarski's 1940 re-exposition of relation algebra.
Leibniz had no influence on the rise of algebraic logic because his logical writings were little studied before the Parkinson and Loemker translations. Our present understanding of Leibniz as a logician stems mainly from the work of Wolfgang Lenzen, summarized in Lenzen (2004). To see how present-day work in logic and metaphysics can draw inspiration from, and shed light on, Leibniz's thought, see Zalta (2000).
Read more about this topic: Algebraic Logic
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“For a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)