Husserl and Boole

Stefania Centrone

Pierluigi Minari

pp. 111-124

in: Stefania Centrone (ed), Essays on Husserl's logic and philosophy of mathematics, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

We aim at clarifying to what extent the work of the English mathematician George Boole (1815–1864) on the algebra of logic is taken into consideration and discussed in the work of early Husserl, focusing in particular on Husserl's lecture "Über die neueren Forschungen zur deduktiven Logik" of 1895, in which an entire section is devoted to Boole. We confront Husserl's representation of the problem-solving processes with the analysis of "symbolic reasoning" proposed by George Boole in the Laws of Thought (1854) and try to show how and why Husserl, while praising Boole's calculus, strongly criticizes his attempt at a philosophical clarification and justification of it.

Cited authors

Husserl Edmund

Boole George