Influences on Boole's logic: The controversy between William Hamilton and Augustus De Morgan

Summary

This paper studies the possible influences on Boole's logic of the writings related to the controversy over the quantification of the predicate between the philosopher William Hamilton and the mathematician Augustus De Morgan. As Boole himself testified in the introduction to his book The mathematical analysis of logic (1847), this controversy was the external agent that stimulated him into writing up his earlier thoughts about a new conception of logic. But in addition to the external role that was played by the controversy, it seems that other kinds of influences on Boole of Hamilton's and De Morgan's ideas about logic, which were made explicit in writings related to the controversy, can also be traced.