# Book:George Boole/An Investigation of the Laws of Thought

## George Boole: An Investigation of the Laws of Thought

Published $\text {1854}$.

### Contents

Preface
Note
Chapter I: Nature and design of this work
Chapter II: Of signs In general, and of the signs appropriate to the science of logic in particular; also of the laws to which that class of signs are subject
Chapter III: Derivation of the laws of the symbols of logic from the laws of the operations of the human mind
Chapter IV: Of the division of propositions into the two classes of "primary" and "secondary;" of the characteristic properties of those classes, and of the laws of the expression of primary propositions
Chapter V: Of the fundamental principles of symbolical reasoning, and of the expansion or development of expressions involving logical symbols
Chapter VI: Of the general interpretation of logical equations, and the resulting analysis of propositions. Also, of the condition of interpretability of logical functions
Chapter VII: On elimination
Chapter VIII: On the reduction of systems of propositions
Chapter IX: On certain methods of abbreviation
Chapter X: On the conditions of a certain method
Chapter XI: Of secondary propositions, and of the principles of their symbolical expression
Chapter XII: Of the methods and processes to be adopted in the treatment of secondary propositions
Chapter XIII: Analysis of a portion of Dr. Samuel Clarke's "Demonstration of the being and attributes of God," and of a portion of the "Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata" of Spinoza
Chapter XIV: Example of the analysis of a system of equations by the method of reduction to a single equivalent equation $V = 0$, wherein $V$ satisfies the condition $V \left({1 - V}\right) = 0$
Chapter XV: The Aristotelian Logic and its modern extensions, examined by the method of this treatise
Chapter XVI: On the theory of probabilities
Chapter XVII: Demonstration of a general method for the solution of problems in the theory of probabilities
Chapter XVIII: Elementary illustrations of the general method of probabilities
Chapter XIX: Of statistical conditions
Chapter XX: Problems relating to the connexion of causes and effects
Chapter XXI: Particular application of the previous general method to the question of the probability of judgments
Chapter XXII: On the nature of science, and the constitution of the intellect
Endnotes