The conceptualization of time in Boole's algebraic logic

Beatrice Godart-Wendling

pp. 241-255

in: James Gasser (ed), A Boole anthology, Berlin, Springer, 2000

Abstract

In the Laws of Thought, Boole abandoned the interpretation of secondary propositions based on the notion of "conjunctures of circumstances' (or in terms of the "uni-verse of cases") as proposed in Mathematical Analysis of Logic,¹ and developed an original semantical theory based upon temporal relations between propositions.² This new approach emphasizes the notion of duration in order to give a temporal interpretation of several propositions and thereby to determine the respective periods of their duration.